THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

GIFT  OF 
JANE  K.  SATHER 


- 


THE 


SLAVE: 


OR 


MEMOIRS   OF   ARCHY    MOORE. 


Leave  wringing  of  your  hands ;  Peace ;  sit  you  down  $ 

And  let  me  wring  your  heart ;  for  so  I  shall, 
If  it  be  made  of  penetrable  stuff; 
If  damned  custom  hath  not  brazed  it  so, 
That  it  be  proof  and  bulwark  against  sense. 

HAMLET. 


SEVENTH    EDITION. 
TWO    VOLUMES   IN   ONE 
VOL.  I. 


BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED   BY   BELA    MARSH, 

No.    25    CORNHILL. 

1848. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1840, 

BY  RICHARD   HILDRETH, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


P  : 

H^Ss- 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


IT  is  unnecessary  to  detain  the  reader,  with  a  narrative  of 
the  somewhat  singular  manner  in  which  the  MS.  of  the  follow 
ing  Memoirs  came  into  my  possession.  It  is  sufficient  for  me  to 
say,  that  I  received  it,  with  an  injunction  to  make  it  public — an 
injunction  which  I  have  not  felt  myself  at  liberty  to  disobey. 

I  would  not  be  understood,  however,  as  implicitly  adopting 
all  the  writer's  feelings  and  sentiments ;  for  it  must  be  confessed 
that  he  sometimes  expresses  himself  with  a  force  and  freedom, 
which  by  many  will  be  thought  extravagant.  Yet,  if  I  am  not 
greatly  mistaken,  he  preserves  throughout,  a  moderation,  a 
calmness,  and  a  magnanimity,  which  have  never  yet  been  dis 
played  upon  the  other  side  of  the  question  ;  and  laying  entirely 
out  of  account  the  writer's  personal  grievances,  I  do  not  know 
how  it  is  possible  to  be  over  zealous  in  a  cause  so  just  as  that 
in  which  he  pleads. 

As  lo  the  conduct  of  the  writer,  as  described  by  himself,  there 
are  several  occasions  upon  which  it  is  impossible  to  approve  it. 
But  he  has  written  Memoirs,  not  an  apology,  nor  a  vindication. 
No  man  who  writes  his  own  life,  will  gain  much  credit,  by 
painting  himself  as  faultless  ;  and  few  can  have  stronger  claims 
to  indulgence  than  Archy  Moore. 

THE  EDITOR. 


MEMOIRS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

YE  who  would  know  what  evils  man  can  inflict  upon 
his  fellcw  without  reluctance,  hesitation,  or  regret ;  ye  who 
would  learn  the  limit  of  human  endurance,  and  with  what 
bitter  anguish  and  indignant  hate,  the  heart  may  swell,  and 
yet  not  burst, — peruse  these  Memoirs  ! 

Mine  are  no  silken  sorrows,  nor  sentimental  sufferings ; 
but  that  stern  reality  of  actual  woe,  the  story  of  which, 
may  perhaps  touch  even  some  of  those,  who  are  every 
day  themselves  the  authors  of  misery  the  same  that  I  en 
dured.  For  however  the  practice  of  tyranny  may  have 
deadened  every  better  emotion,  and  the  prejudices  of  edu 
cation  and  interest  may  have  hardened  the  heart,  humanity 
will  still  extort  an  involuntary  tribute  ;  and  men  will  grow 
uneasy  at  hearing  of  those  deeds,  of  which  the  doing  does 
not  cost  them  a  moment's  inquietude. 

Should  1  accomplish  no  more  than  this ;  should  I  be 
able,  through  the  triple  steel  with  which  the  love  of  money 
and  the  lust  of  domination  has  encircled  it,  to  reach  one 
bosom, — let  the  story  of  my  wrongs  summon  up,  in  the 
mind  of  a  single  oppressor,  the  dark  and  dreaded  images 
of  his  own  misdeeds,  and  teach  his  conscience  how  to  tor 
ture  him  with  the  picture  of  himself,  and  I  shall  be  content. 
Next  to  the  tears  and  the  exultations  of  the  emancipated, 
the  remorse  of  tyrants  is  the  choicest  offering  upon  the  al 
tar  of  liberty ! 

1* 


6  MEMOIRS    OF 

But  perhaps  something  more  may  be  possible ; — not 
likely — but  to  be  imagined — and  it  may  be,  even  faintly 
to  be  hoped.  Perhaps  within  some  youthful  breast,  in 
which  the  evil  spirits  of  avarice  and  tyranny  have  as  yet 
failed  to  gain  unlimited  control,  I  may  be  able  to  rekindle 
the  smothered  and  expiring  embers  of  humanity.  Spite  of 
habits  and  prejudices  inculcated  and  fostered  from  his  ear 
liest  childhood,  spite  of  the  enticements  of  wealth  and 
political  distinction,  and  the  still  stronger  enticements  of 
indolence  and  ease,  spite  of  the  pratings  of  hollow-hearted 
priests,  spite  of  the  arguments  of  time-serving  sophists, 
spite  of  the  hesitation  and  terrors  of  the  weak-spirited  and 
wavering ;  in  spite  of  evil  precept  and  evil  example,  he 
dares — that  generous  and  heroic  youth  ! — to  cherish  and 
avow  the  feelings  of  a  man. 

Another  Saul  among  the  prophets,  he  prophesies  terrible 
things  in  the  ear  of  insolent  and  luxurious  tyranny ;  in  the 
midst  of  tyrants  he  dares  to  preach  the  good  tidings  of 
liberty ;  in  the  very  school  of  oppression,  he  stands  boldly 
forth  the  advocate  of  human  rights ! 

He  breaks  down  the  ramparts  of  prejudice ;  he  dissi 
pates  the  illusions  of  avarice  and  pride;  he  repeals  the 
enactments,  which  though  wanting  every  feature  of  justice, 
have  sacrilegiously  usurped  the  sacred  form  of  law  !  He 
snatches  the  whip  from  the  hand  of  the  master ;  he  breaks 
forever  the  fetter  of  the  slave  ! 

In  place  of  rpl"cfant  toil,  drudging  for  another,  he  brings 
in  smiling  industry  to  "labor  for  herself!  All  nature  seems 
1  to  exult  in  the  change  !  The  earth,  no  longer  made  barren 
by  the  tears  and  the  blood  of  her  children,  pours  forth  her 
treasures  with  redoubled  liberality.  Existence  ceases  to 
be  torture ;  and  to  live  is  no  longer  to  millions,  the  certainty 
of  being  miserable. 

Chosen  Instrument  of  Mercy  !  Illustrious  Deliverer ! 
Come  !  come  quickly  ! 

Come ! — lest,  if  thy  coming  be  delayed,  there  come 
in  thy  place,  he  who  will  be  at  once,  DELIVERER  and 
AVENGER! 


ARCHY    MOORE. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  county  in  which  I  was  born,  was  then,  and  for 
aught  I  know,  may  still  be  one  of  the  richest  and  most 
populous  in  eastern  Virginia.  My  father,  colonel  Charles 
Moore,  was  the  head  of  one  of  the  most  considerable  and 
influential  families  in  that  part  of  the  country  ; — and  family, 
however  little  weight  it  may  have  in  other  parts  of  Ameri 
ca,  at  the  time  I  was  born,  was  a  thing  of  no  slight  conse 
quence  in  lower  Virginia.  Nature  and  education  had 
combined  to  qualify  colonel  Moore  to  fill  with  credit,  the 
station  in  which  his  birth  had  placed  him.  He  was  a 
finished  aristocrat ;  and  such  he  showed  himself  in  every 
word,  look  and  action.  There  was  in  his  bearing,  a  con 
scious  superiority  which  few  could  resist,  softened  and  ren 
dered  even  agreeable  by  a  gentleness  and  suavity,  which 
flattered,  pleased  and  captivated.  In  fact,  he  was  familiarly 
spoken  of  among  his  friends  and  neighbors,  as  the  faultless 
pattern  of  a  true  Virginian  gentleman — an  encomium  by 
which  they  supposed  themselves  to  convey,  in  the  most 
emphatic  manner,  the  highest  possible  praise. 

When  the  war  of  the  American  Revolution  broke  out, 
colonel  Moore  was  a  very  young  man.  By  birth  and  edu 
cation,  he  belonged,  as  I  have  said,  to  the  aristocratic  party, 
which  being  aristocratic,  was  of  course,  conservative.  But, 
the  impulses  of  youth  and  patriotism  were  too  strong  to  be 
resisted.  He  espoused  with  zeal,  the  cause  of  liberty,  and 
by  his  political  activity  and  influence,  contributed  not  a 
little  to  its  success. 

Of  liberty  indeed,  he  was  always  a  warm  and  energetic 
admirer.  Among  my  earliest  recollections  of  him,  is  the 
earnestness  with  which,  among  his  friends  and  guests,  he 
used  to  vindicate  the  cause  of  the  Frencli  revolution,  then 
going  on.  Of  that  revolution,  throughout  its  whole  prog 
ress,  he  was  a  most  eloquent  advocate  and  apologist ;  and 
though  I  understood  little  or  nothing  of  what  he  said,  the 
spirit  and  eloquence  with  which  he  spoke  could  not  fail  to 
affect  me.  The  rights  of  man,  and  the  rights  of  human 


MEMOIRS    OF 

nature  were  phrases,  which,  although  at  that  time,  I  was 
quite  unconscious  of  their  meaning,  I  heard  so  often  re 
peated,  that  they  made  an  indelible  impression  upon  my 
memory,  and  in  after  years,  frequently  recurred  to  my 
recollection. 

But  colonel  Moore  was  not  a  mere  talker ;  he  had  the 
credit  of  acting  up  to  his  principles,  and  was  universally 
regarded  as  a  man  of  the  greatest  good  nature,  honor  and 
uprightness.  Several  promising  young  men,  who  after 
wards  rose  to  eminence,  were  indebted  for  their  first  start 
in  life,  to  his  patronage  and  assistance.  He  settled  half 
the  differences  in  the  county,  and  never  seemed  so  well 
pleased  as  when  by  preventing  a  lawsuit  or  a  duel,  he 
hindered  an  accidental  and  perhaps  trifling  dispute  from 
degenerating  into  a  bitter,  if  not  a  fatal  quarrel.  The 
tenderness  of  his  heart,  his  ready,  active  benevolence,  and 
his  sympathy  with  misfortune,  were  traits  in  his  character 
spoken  of  by  every  body. 

Had  I  been  allowed  to  choose  my  own  paternity,  could 
I  possibly  have  selected  a  more  desirable  father  ? — But  by 
the  laws  and  customs  of  Virginia,  it  is  not  the  father  but  the 
mother,  whose  rank  and  condition  determine  that  of  the 
child  ; — and  alas !  my  mother  was  a  concubine,  and  a 
slave  ! 

Yet  those  who  beheld  her  for  the  first  time,  would  hardly 
have  imagined,  or  would  willingly  have  forgotten,  that  she 
was  connected  with  an  ignoble  and  degraded  race.  Humble 
as  her  station  might  be,  she  could  at  least  boast  possession 
of  the  most  brilliant  beauty.  The  trace  of  African  blood, 
by  which  her  veins  were  contaminated,  was  distinctly  visi 
ble  ; — but  the  tint  which  it  imparted  to  her  complexion  only 
served  to  give  a  peculiar  richness  to  the  blush  that  mantled 
over  her  cheek.  Her  long  black  hair,  which  she  under 
stood  how  to  arrange  with  an  artful  simplicity,  and  the  flash 
ing  of  her  dark  eyes,  which  changed  their  expression  with 
every  change  of  feeling,  corresponded  exactly  to  her  com 
plexion,  and  completed  a  picture  which  might  perhaps  be 
matched  in  Spain  or  Italy,  but  for  which,  it  would  be  in 
vain  to  seek  a  rival  among  the  pale-faced  and  languid  beau 
ties  of  eastern  Virginia. 


AilCH  X     MOORE.  9 

I  describe  her  more  like  a  lover  than  a  son.  But  in 
truth,  her  beauty  was  so  uncommon,  as  to  draw  my  atten 
tion  while  I  was  yet  a  child  ;  and  many  an  hour  have  I 
watched  her,  almost  with  a  lover's  earnestness,  while  she 
fondled  me  on  her  lap,  and  tears  and  smiles  chased  each 
other  alternately  over  a  face,  the  expression  of  which  was 
ever  changing,  yet  always  beautiful.  She  was  the  most 
affectionate  of  mothers ;  the  mixture  of  tenderness,  grief 
and  pleasure,  with  which  she  always  seemed  to  regard  me. 
gave  a  new  vivacity  to  her  beauty  ;  and  it  was  probably 
this,  which  so  early  and  so  strongly  fixed  my  attention. 

But  I  was  very  far  from  being  her  only  admirer.  Her 
beauty  was  notorious  through  all  that  part  of  the  country ; 
and  colonel  Moore  had  been  frequently  tempted  to  sell  her 
by  the  offer  of  very  high  prices.  All  such  offers  however, 
he  had  steadily  rejected  ;  for  he  especially  prided  himself 
upon  owning  the  swiftest  horse,  the  handsomest  wench,  and 
the  finest  pack  of  hounds  in  the  "  Ancient  Dominion." 

Now  it  may  seem  odd  to  some  people,  in  some  parts  of 
the  world,  that  colonel  Moore  being  such  a  man  as  I  have 
described  him,  should  keep  a  mistress  and  be  the  father 
of  illegitimate  children.  Such  persons  however,  must  be 
totally  ignorant  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  slave-holding 
states  of  America. 

Colonel  Moore  was  married  to  an  amiable  woman,  whom. 
I  dare  say,  he  loved  and  respected ;  and  in  the  course  of 
time,  she  made  him  the  happy  father  of  two  sons  and  as 
many  daughters.  This  circumstance  however,  did  not 
hinder  him,  any  more  than  it  does  any  other  American 
planter,  from  giving,  in  the  mean  time,  a  very  free  indul 
gence  to  his  amorous  temperament  among  his  numerous 
slaves  at  Spring-Meadow, — for  so  his  estate  was  called. 
Many  of  the  young  women  occasionally  boasted  of  his 
attentions  ;  though  generally,  at  any  one  time,  he  did  not 
have  more  than  one  or  two  acknowledged  favorites. 

My  mother  was  for  several  years,  distinguished  by  colone! 
Moore's  very  particular  regard ;  and  she  brought  him  no 
less  than  six  children,  all  of  whom,  except  myself,  who  was 
the  eldest,  were  lucky  enough  to  die  in  infancy. 

From  my  mother  I  inherited  some  imperceptible  portion 


10  MEMOIRS     OF 

of  African  blood,  and  with  it,  the  base  and  cursed  condition 
of  a  slave.  But  though  born  a  slave,  I  inherited  all  my 
father's  proud  spirit,  sensitive  feelings  and  ardent  tempera 
ment;  and  as  regards  natural  endowments,  whether  of 
mind  or  body,  I  am  bold  to  assert,  that  he  had  more  reason 
to  be  proud  of  me  than  of  either  of  his  legitimate  and  ac 
knowledged  sons. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THAT  education  is  the  most  effectual,  which  commences 
earliest — a  maxim  well  understood  in  that  part  of  the 
world  in  which  it  was  my  misfortune  to  be  born.  As  it 
sometimes  happens  there,  that  one  half  of  a  man's  children 
are  born  masters  and  the  other  half  slaves,  it  has  become 
sufficiently  obvious  how  necessary  it  is,  to  begin,  by  times, 
the  course  of  discipline  proper  to  train  them  up  for  these 
very  different  situations.  It  is,  accordingly,  the  general 
custom,  that  young  master,  almost  from  the  hour  of  his  birth, 
has  allotted  to  him,  some  little  slave  near  his  own  age,  upon 
whom  he  begins,  from  the  time  he  can  go  alone,  to  practise 
his  apprenticeship  of  tyranny.  It  so  happened  that  within 
less  than  a  year  after  my  birth,  colonel  Moore's  wife  pre 
sented  him  with  her  second  son,  James  ;  and  while  we 
both  slept  unconscious  in  our  cradles,^  I  was  duly  assigned 
over  and  appointed  to  be  the  body-servant  of  my  younger 
brother.  It  is  in  this  capacity,  of  master  James's  boy,  that 
following  back  the  traces  of  memory,  I  first  discover  myself. 

The  natural  and  usual  consequences  of  giving  one  child 
absolute  authority  over  another,  may  be  easily  imagined. 
The  love  of  domination  is  perhaps  the  strongest  of  our  pas 
sions,  and  it  is  surprising  how  soon  the  veriest  child  will 
become  perfect  in  the  practice  of  tyranny.  Of  this,  colonel 
Moore's  eldest  son,  William,  or  master  William,  as  he  was 
called  at  Spring-Meadow,  was  a  striking  instance.  He 
was  the  terror  and  bugbear,  not  only  of  Joe,  his  own  boy, 
but  of  all  the  children  on  the  place.  That  unthinking  and 
irrational  delight  in  the  exercise  of  cruelty,  which  is  some- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  1 1 

times  displayed  by  a  wayward  child,  seemed  in  him,  almost 
a  passion  ;  and  this  passion,  by  perpetual  indulgence,  was 
soon  fostered  into  a  habit.  When  any  delinquent  slave  was 
to  be  punished,  he  contrived  if  possible  to  find  it  out,  and 
to  be  present  at  the  infliction  ;  so  that  he  soon  became  an 
adept  in  all  the  horrible  practices  and  disgusting  slang  of  an 
overseer.  He  always  went  armed  with  a  whip,  twice  as 
long  as  himself,  and  upon  the  least  opposition  to  his  whims 
and  caprices,  was  ready  to  show  his  skill  in  the  use  of  it. 
All  this  he  took  some  little  pains  to  conceal  from  his  father ; 
who  however,  was  pretty  careful  not  to  see  what  he  could, 
by  no  means,  approve,  but  what,  at  the  same  time — indul 
gent  father  as  he  was — he  would  have  found  it  very  difficult 
to  prevent  or  to  cure. 

Master  James,  to  whose  service,  I  was  particularly  ap 
pointed,  was  a  very  different  boy.  Sickly  and  weak  from 
his  birth,  his  temper  was  gentle  and  his  mind  effeminate. 
He  had  an  affectionate  disposition,  and  soon  conceived  a 
fondness  for  me,  which  I  very  thankfully  returned.  He 
protected  me  from  the  tyranny  of  master  William  by  his 
entreaties,  his  tears,  and  what  had  much  more  weight  with 
that  amiable  youth,  by  threats  of  complaining  to  his  father, 
and  making  a  complete  exposure  of  his  brutal  and  cruel 
behavior. 

I  soon  learned  to  put  up  with  and  to  pardon,  an  occa 
sional  pettishness  and  ill  humor,  for  which  master  James's 
bad  health  furnished  a  ready  excuse ;  and  by  flattery  and 
apparent  obsequiousness,  for  a  child  learns  and  practises 
such  arts  as  readily  as  a  man,  I  presently  came  to  have  a 
great  influence  over  him.  He  was  the  master,  and  I  the 
slave  ;  but  while  we  were  both  children,  this  artificial  dis 
tinction  had  less  potency,  and  I  found  little  difficulty  in 
maintaining  that  actual  pre-eminence,  to  which  my  superior 
vigor  both  of  body  and  mind,  so  justly  entitled  me. 

When  master  James  had  reached  the  age  of  five  years,  it 
was  judged  expedient  by  his  father,  that  he  should  be  initia 
ted  into  the  rudiments  of  learning.  To  learn  the  letters  was 
a  laborious  undertaking  enough, — but  for  putting  them  into 
words,  my  young  master  seemed  to  have  no  genius  what 
ever.  He  was  not  destitute  of  ambition ;  he  was  indeed 


12  MEMOIRS    OF 

very  desirous  to  learn ;  it  was  the  ability,  not  the  incli 
nation  that  was  wanting.  In  this  difficulty,  he  had 
recourse  to  me,  who  was  on  all  occasions,  his  chief  coun 
sellor.  By  putting  our  heads  together,  we  soon  hit  upon  a 
plan.  My  memory  was  remarkably  good,  while  that  of 
my  poor  little  master  was  very  miserable.  We  arranged 
therefore,  that  the  family  tutor  should  first  teach  me  the 
letters  and  the  abs,  which  my  strong  memory,  we  thought, 
would  enable  me  easily  to  retain,  and  which  I  was  gradu 
ally,  and  between  plays,  as  opportunity  served,  to  instill 
into  the  mind  of  master  James.  This  plan  we  found  to  an 
swer  admirably.  Neither  the  tutor  nor  colonel  Moore 
made  any  objection  to  it ;  for  all  that  colonel  Moore  desired 
was,  that  his  son  should  learn  to  read  ;  and  the  tutor  was 
very  willing  to  shift  off  the  most  laborious  part  of  his  task 
upon  my  shoulders. 

As  yet,  no  one  had  dreamed  of  those  barbarous  and  de 
testable  laws — unparalleled  in  any  other  codes,  and  destined 
to  be  the  everlasting  disgrace  of  America — by  which  it  has 
been  made  a  crime,  punishable  with  fine  and  imprisonment, 
to  teach  a  slave  to  read. 

It  is  not  enough  that  custom  and  the  proud  scorn  of 
unfeeling  tyranny  unite  to  keep  the  slave  in  hopeless  and 
helpless  ignorance,  but  the  laws  too  have  openly  become  a 
party  to  this  accursed  conspiracy  !  Yes,  I  believe  they 
would  tear  out  our  very  eyes, — and  that  too  by  virtue  of  a 
regularly  enacted  statute — had  they  ingenuity  enough  to 
invent  a  way  of  enabling  us  to  drudge  and  delve  without 
them ! 

I  soon  learned  to  read,  and  before  long,  I  made  master 
James  almost  as  good  a  reader  as  my^cif.  As  he  was  sub 
ject  to  frequent  fits  of  illness,  which  confined  him  to  the 
house,  and  disabled  him  from  indulging  in  those  active 
sports  to  which  boys  are  chiefly  devoted,  his  father  obtained 
for  him  a  large  collection  of  books  adapted  to  his  age,  which 
he  and  I  used  to  read  over  together,  and  in  which  we  took 
great  delight. 

In  the  further  progress  of  my  young  master's  studies  I 
was  still  his  associate ;  for  though  the  plan  of  teaching  me 
first,  in  order  that  I  might  afterwards  teach  him,  was  pur- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  13 

sued  no  longer,  yet  as  I  bad  a  desire  to  learn,  as  well  as  a 
quick  apprehension,  1  found  no  difficulty  in  extracting  every 
day  from  master  James,  the  substance  of  his  lessons.  In 
deed,  if  there  was  any  difficulty  in  them,  he  was  in  the 
constant  habit  of  appealing  to  me  for  assistance.  In  this 
way,  I  acquired  some  elementary  knowledge  of  arithmetic 
and  geography,  and  even  a  smattering  of  latin. 

These  acquisitions  however,  I  took  great  pains  to  con 
ceal,  since  even  the  fact  that  I  could  read,  though  it  in 
creased  my  consequence  among  the  servants,  exposed  me 
to  a  good  deal  of  ridicule  to  which  I  was  very  sensitive.  I 
was  not  looked  upon,  as  I  suppose  they  now  look  upon  a 
slave,  who  knows  how  to  read  and  who  exhibits  some 
marks  of  sense  and  ability,  as  a  dreadful  monster  breathing 
war  and  rebellion,  and  plotting  to  cut  the  throats  of  all  the 
good  people  in  America ;  I  was  regarded  rather  as  a  sort 
of  prodigy — like  a  three  legged  hen,  or  a  sheep  with  four 
eyes ;  a  thing  to  be  produced  and  exhibited  for  the  enter 
tainment  of  strangers.  Frequently  at  a  dinner  party,  after 
the  Madeira  had  circulated  pretty  freely,  I  was  set  to  read 
paragraphs  in  the  newspapers,  to  amuse  my  masters  tipsy 
guests,  and  was  puzzled,  perplexed  and  tormented,  by  all 
sorts  of  absurd,  ridiculous,  and  impertinent  questions,  which 
1  was  obliged  to  answer  under  penalty  of  having  a  wine 
•4'lass,  a  bottle,  or  a  plate  flung  at  my  head.  Master 
William  especially,  as  he  was  prevented  from  using  his 
whip  upon  me,  as  freely  as  he  wished,  strove  to  indemnify 
himself  by  making  me  the  butt  of  his  wit.  He  took  great 
pride  in  the  nick-name  of  the  "  learned  nigger,"  which  he 
had  invented  and  always  applied  to  me; — though  God 
knows,  that  my  cheek  was  little  less  fair  than  his,  and  1 
cannot  help  hoping  that  at  least,  my  soul  was  whiter. 

These,  it  may  be  thought,  were  trifling  vexations.  In 
truth  they  were  so  ;  but  it  cost  me  many  a  struggle  before 
I  could  learn  to  endure  them  with  any  tolerable  patience. 
I  was  compensated  in  some  measure,  by  the  pleasure  I  took 
in  listening,  as  I  stood  behind  my  master's  chair,  to  the  con 
versation  of  the  company, — I  mean  their  conversation 
before  they  set  regularly  in  to  drinking ;  for  every  dinner 
party  was  sure  to  wind  up  with  a  general  frolic. 
2 


14  MEMOIRS    OF 

Colonel  Moore  kept  an  open  house,  and  almost  every 
day,  he  had  some  of  his  friends,  relatives,  or  neighbors,  at 
his  table.  He  was  himself  an  eloquent  and  most  agreeable 
talker ;  his  voice  was  soft  and  musical,  and  he  always  ex 
pressed  himself  with  a  great  deal  of  point  and  vivacity. 
Many  of  his  guests  were  well  informed  men  ;  and  though 
politics  was  always  the  leading  topic  of  conversation,  a  great 
variety  of  other  subjects  were  occasionally  discussed.  Colo 
nel  Moore,  as  I  have  already  observed,  was  himself  a  warm 
democrat— republican  was  then  the  phrase — for  democrat, 
however  fond  the  Americans  have  since  become  of  the 
name,  was  at  that  time  regarded  as  an  epithet  of  reproach. 
The  greater  part  of  those  who  frequented  colonel  Moore's 
house,  entertained  the  same  liberal  opinions  on  political  sub 
jects.  I  listened  to  their  conversation  with  eagerness  and 
pleasure  ;  and  when  I  heard  them  talk  of  equal  rights,  and 
declaim  against  tyranny  and  oppression,  my  heart  would 
swell  with  emotions  of  which  I  scarcely  understood  the 
meaning.  All  this  time,  I  made  no  personal  application  of 
what  I  heard  and  felt.  It  was  only  the  abstract  beauty  of 
liberty  and  equality,  of  which  I  had  learned  to  be  enam 
ored.  It  was  the  French  republicans  with  whom  I  sympa 
thized  ;  it  was  the  Austrian  and  English  tyrants  against 
whom  my  indignation  was  roused  ;  it  was  John  Adams  and 
his  atrocious  gag  law.  I  had  not  yet  learned  to  think  about 
myself.  What  I  saw  around  me  I  had  always  been  accus 
tomed  to  see,  and  it  appeared  as  it  were,  the  fixed  order  of 
nature.  Though  born  a  slave,  I  had,  as  yet,  experienced 
scarcely  any  thing  of  the  miseries  of  that  wretched  condi 
tion.  I  was  singularly  fortunate  in  my  young  master,  to 
whom  I  was,  in  many  respects,  as  much  a  companion  as  a 
servant.  By  his  favor,  and  through  means  of  my  mother. 
who  still  continued  a  favorite  with  colonel  Moore,  I  enjoyed 
more  indulgences  than  any  other  servant  on  the  place. 
Comparing  my  situation  with  that  of  the  field  hand?,  I 
might  pronounce  myself  fortunate  indeed  ;  and  though  ex 
posed  to  occasional  mortifications,  enough  to  give  me  already 
a  foretaste  of  the  bitter  cup  which  every  one  who  lives  a 
slave  must  swallow,  my  youth  and  the  buoyant  vivacity  of 
my  temper  as  yet  sustained  me. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  15 

At  this  time,  I  did  not  know  that  colonel  Moore  was  my 
father.  That  gentleman  was  indebted  for  no  inconsider 
able  part  of  his  high  reputation,  to  a  very  strict  attention  to 
those  conventional  observances  which  so  often  usurp  the 
place  of  morals.  Some  observances  of  this  sort,  which  pre 
vail  in  America,  are  sufficiently  remarkable.  It  is  consid 
ered  for  instance,  no  crime  whatever,  for  a  master  to  be,  if  he 
chooses,  the  father  of  every  infant  slave  born  upon  his  planta 
tion.  Yet  it  is  esteemed  a  very  grave  breach  of  propriety, 
indeed  almost  an  unpardonable  crime,  for  such  a  father 
ever,  in  any  way,  to  acknowledge  or  take  any  notice,  of  any 
of  his  unfortunate  children.  Imperious  custom  demands 
that  he  should  treat  them,  in  every  respect,  like  his  other 
slaves.  If  he  drive  them  into  the  field  to  labor,  if  he  sell 
them  at  auction  to  the  highest  bidder,  it  is  all  well.  But 
if  he  audaciously  undertake  to  exhibit  towards  them,  in  any 
way,  the  slightest  indication  of  paternal  tenderness,  he  may 
be  sure  that  his  character  will  be  assailed  by  the  tongue  of 
universal  slander ;  that  his  every  weak  point  and  unjustifi 
able  action  will  be  carefully  sought  out,  malignantly  magni 
fied,  and  ostentatiously  exposed ;  that  he  will  be  compelled 
to  run  a  sort  of  moral  gantlet,  and  will  be  represented 
among  all  the  better  sort  of  people,  as  every  thing  that  is 
infamous,  base  and  contemptible. 

Colonel  Moore  was  far  too  wise  a  man,  to  entertain  the 
slightest  idea  of  exposing  himself  to  any  thing  of  that  sort. 
He  had  always  kept  the  best  society, — and  though  he  might 
be  a  democrat  in  politics,  he  was  certainly  very  much  of  an 
aristocrat  and  an  exclusive  in  his  feelings.  Of  course,  he 
had  the  same  sort  .of  indescribable  horror,  at  the  thought  of 
violating  any  of  the  settled  proprieties  of  the  society  in 
which  he  moved,  that  a  modern  belle  has  of  cotton  lace,  or 
a  modern  dandy  of  an  iron  fork.  This  being  the  case, 
nobody  will  wonder — so  far  at  least  as  colonel  Moore  had 
any  control  over  the  matter — that  I  was  still  ignorant  who 
my  father  was. 

But  though  a  secret  to  me,  it  certainly  was  not  so  to 
colonel  Moore's  friends  and  visitors.  If  nothing  else  had 
betrayed  it,  the  striking  resemblance  between  us,  would 


16  MEMOIRS    OF 

certainly  have  done  so ;  and  although  that  same  regard  10 
propriety,  which  prevented  colonel  Moore  from  ever  no 
ticing  the  relationship,  also  tied  up  the  tongues  of  his  guests, 
yet,  after  I  had  learned  the  secret,  there  immediately  oc 
curred  to  my  mind  the  true  explanation  of  certain  sly  jests 
and  distant  allusions,  which  had  sometimes  been  dropped 
towards  the  end  of  a  dinner,  by  some  of  those  guests  whom 
deep  potations  had  inspired  at  once  with  wit  and  veracity. 
These  brilliancies,  of  which  I  had  never  been  able  to  under 
stand  the  meaning,  were  always  ill  received  by  colonel 
Moore,  and  by  all  the  soberer  part  of  the  company,  and 
were  frequently  followed  by  a  command  to  me  and  the 
other  servants  to  quit  the  room  ;  but  why  or  wherefore,  till 
I  became  possessed  of  the  key  above  mentioned,  I  was 
always  at  a  great  loss  to  determine. 

The  secret  which  my  father  did  not  choose,  and  which 
my  mother  did  not  dare  to  communicate,  I  might  easily 
have  obtained  from  my  fellow  servants.  But  at  this  time, 
like  most  of  the  lighter  complexioned  slaves,  I  felt  a  sort 
of  contempt  for  my  duskier  brothers  in  misfortune.  I  kept 
myself  as  much  as  possible,  at  a  distance  from  them,  and 
scorned  to  associate  with  men  a  little  darker  than  myself. 
So  ready  are  slaves  to  imbibe  all  the  ridiculous  prejudices 
of  their  oppressors,  and  themselves  to  add  new  links  to  the 
chain,  which  deprives  them  of  their  liberty ! 

But  let  me  do  my  father  justice  ;  for  I  do  not  believe 
that  he  was  totally  destitute  of  a  father's  feelings.  Though 
he  never  made  the  slightest  acknowledgment  of  the  claims 
which  I  had  upon  him,  yet  I  am  sure,  in  his  own  heart,  he 
did  not  totally  deny  their  validity.  There  was  a  tone  of 
good  natured  indulgence  whenever  he  spoke  to  me,  an  air 
of  kindness,  which  though  he  always  had  it,  seemed  toward 
me,  to  have  in  it  something  peculiar.  At  any  rate,  he  suc 
ceeded  in  captivating  my  affections  ;  for  though  I  regarded 
him  only  as  my  master,  I  loved  him  very  sincerely 


ARCHY   MOORE.  17 


CHAPTER   IV. 

I  WAS  about  seventeen  years  old,  when  my  mother  was 
attacked  by  a  fever,  which  proved  fatal  to  her.  She  early 
had  a  presentiment  of  her  fate  ;  and  before  the  disorder  had 
made  any  great  progress,  she  sent  me  word  that  she  desired 
to  see  me.  I  found  her  in  bed.  She  begged  the  woman 
who  nursed  her,  to  leave  us  together,  and  bade  me  sit  down 
by  her  bed-side.  Having  told  me  that  she  feared  she  was 
going  to  die,  she  could  not  think  it  kind  to  me,  she  said,  to 
leave  the  world,  without  first  telling  me  a  secret,  which 
possibly,  I  might  find  hereafter  of  some  consequence.  I 
begged  her  to  go  on,  and  waited  with  impatience  for  the 
promised  information.  She  began  with  a  short  account  of 
her  own  life.  Her  mother  was  a  slave  ;  her  father  was  a 
certain  colonel  Randolph — a  scion  of  one  of  the  great  Vir 
ginian  families.  She  had  been  raised  as  a  lady's  maid,  and 
on  the  marriage  of  colonel  Moore,  had  been  purchased  by 
him  and  presented  to  his  wife.  She  was  then  quite  a  girl. 
As  she  grew  older  and  her  beauty  became  more  noticeable, 
she  found  much  favor  in  the  eyes  of  her  master.  She  had 
a  neat  little  house,  with  a  double  set  of  rooms — an  arrange 
ment,  as  much  for  colonel  Moore's  convenience  as  her  own  ; 
and  though  some  light  tasks  of  needle-work  were  sometimes 
required  of  her,  yet  as  nobody  chose  to  quarrel  with  mas 
ter's  favorite,  she  lived,  henceforward,  a  very  careless, 
indolent,  but  as  she  told  me,  a  very  unhappy  life. 

For  a  part  of  this  unhappiness  she  was  indebted  to  her 
self.  The  air  of  superiority  she  assumed  in  her  intercourse 
with  the  other  servants,  made  them  all  hate  her,  and  induced 
them  to  improve  eveiy  opportunity  of  vexing  and  mortifying 
her ; — and  to  all  sorts  of  feminine  mortifications  she  wras  as 
sensitive  as  any  belle  that  ever  existed.  But  though  vain  of 
her  beauty  and  her  master's  favor,  she  was  not  ill-tempered  ; 
and  the  foolish  pride  from  which  she  suffered,  sprung  in  her, 
as  a  similar  feeling  did  in  me,  from  a  groundless,  though 
common  prejudice.  Indeed  our  situation  was  so  superior  to 
that  of  most  of  the  other  slaves,  that  we  naturally  imagined 
2* 


18  MEMOIRS    OF 

ourselves,  in  some  sort,  a  superior  race.  It  was  doubtless 
under  the  influence  of  this  feeling,  that  my  mother,  having 
told  me  who  my  father  was,  observed  with  a  smile  and  a 
self-complacent  air,  which  even  the  tremors  of  her  fever  did 
not  prevent  from  being  apparent,  that  both  on  the  father's 
and  the  mother's  side,  I  had  running  in  my  veins,  the  best 
blood  of  Virginia — the  blood,  she  added,  of  the  Moores 
and  the  Randolphs ! 

Alas !  she  did  not  seem  to  recollect  that  though  I  might 
count  all  the  nobles  of  Virginia  among  my  ancestors,  one 
drop  of  blood  imported  from  Africa — though  that  too,  might 
be  the  blood  of  kings  and  chieftains, — would  be  enough  to 
taint  the  whole  pedigree,  and  to  condemn  me  to  perpetual 
slavery,  even  in  the  house  of  my  own  father ! 

The  information  which  my  mother  communicated,  made 
little  impression  upon  me  at  the*  moment.  My  principal 
anxiety  was  for  her ;  for  she  had  always  been  the  tenderest 
and  most  affectionate  of  parents.  The  progress  of  her 
disorder  was  rapid,  and  on  the  third  day  she  ceased  to  live. 
1  lamented  her  with  the  sincerest  grief.  The  sharpness  of 
my  sorrow  was  soon  over ;  but  my  spirits  did  not  seem  to 
regain  their  former  tone.  The  thoughtless  gaiety,  which 
till  now  had  shed  a  sort  of  sunshine  over  my  life,  seemed  to 
desert  me.  My  thoughts  began  to  recur  very  frequently,  to 
the  information  which  my  mother  had  communicated.  I  hard 
ly  know  how  to  describe  the  effect  which  it  seemed  to  have 
upon  me.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  tell  what  were  its  actual  effects. 
or  what  ought  to  be  ascribed  to  other  and  more  general  causes. 
Perhaps  that  revolution  of  feeling,  which  I  now  experienced, 
should  be  attributed  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  change  from 
boyhood  to  manhood,  through  which  I  was  passing.  Hither 
to  things  had  seemed  to  happen  like  the  events  of  a  dream, 
without  touching  me  deeply  or  affecting  me  permanently. 
I  was  sometimes  vexed  and  dissatisfied  ;  I  had  my  occa 
sional  sorrows  and  complaints.  But  those  sorrows  were 
soon  over,  and  as  after  summer  showers  the  sun  shines  out 
the  brighter,  so  my  transient  sadness  was  soon  succeeded 
by  a  more  lively  gaiety,  which,  as  soon  as  immediate 
g~ievano°s  were  forgotten,  burst  forth,  unsubdued  either  by 
reflections  on  the  past,  or  anxieties  for  the  future.  In  that 


ARCHY    MOORE.  19 

gaiety  there  was  indeed  scarcely  anything  of  substantial 
pleasure;  it  originated  rather  in  a  careless  insensibility.  It 
was  like  the  glare  of  the  moon-beams,  bright,  but  cold. 
Such  as  it  was  however,  it  was  far  more  comfortable,  than 
the  state  of  feeling  by  which  it  now  began  to  be  succeeded. 
My  rnind  seemed  to  be  filled  with  indefinite  anxieties,  of 
which  I  could  divine  neither  the  causes  nor  the  cure. 
There  was,  as  it  were,  a  heavy  weight  upon  my  bosom,  an 
unsatisfied  craving  for  something,  I  knew  not  what,  a  long 
ing  which  I  could  do  nothing  to  satisfy,  because  I  could 
not  tell  its  object.  I  would  be  often  lost  in  thought,  but 
my  mind  did  not  seem  to  fix  itself  to  any  certain  aim,  and 
after  hours  of  apparently  the  deepest  meditation,  I  should 
have  been  very  much  at  a  loss  to  tell  about  what  I  had 
been  thinking. 

But  sometimes  my  reflections  would  take  a  more  definite 
shape.  I  would  begin  to  consider  what  I  was  and  what  I 
had  to  anticipate.  The  son  of  a  freeman,  yet  born  a  slave ! 
Endowed  by  nature  with  abilities,  which  I  should  never 
be  permitted  to  exercise ;  possessed  of  knowledge,  which 
already,  I  found  it  expedient  to  conceal !  The  slave  of  my 
own  father,  the  servant  of  my  own  brother,  a  bounded,  lim 
ited,  confined,  and  captive  creature,  who  did  not  dare  to  go 
out  of  sight  of  his  master's  house  without  a  written  permis 
sion  to  do  so !  Destined  to  be  the  sport,  of  I  knew  not 
whose  caprices ;  forbidden  in  anything  to  act  for  myself,  or 
to  consult  my  own  happiness  ;  compelled  to  labor  all  my 
life  at  another's  bidding  ;  and  liable  every  hour  and  instant, 
to  oppressions  the  most  outrageous,  and  degradations  the 
most  humiliating ! 

These  reflections  soon  grew  so  bitter  that  I  struggled  hard 
to  suppress  them.  But  that  was  not  always  in  my  power. 
Again  and  again,  in  spite  of  all  my  efforts,  these  hateful 
ideas  would  start  up  and  sting  me  into  anguish. 

My  young  master  still  continued  kind  as  ever.  I  was 
changing  to  a  man,  but  he  still  remained  a  boy.  His  pro 
tracted  ill  health,  which  had  checked  his  growth,  appeared 
also  to  retard  his  mental  maturity.  He  seemed  every  day 
to  fall  more  and  more  under  my  influence ;  and  every  day 
my  attachment  to  him  grew  stronger.  He  was  in  fact,  my 


20  MEMOIRS     OF 

sole  hope.  While  I  remained  with  him,  I  might  reasonably 
expect  to  escape  the  utter  bitterness  of  slavery.  In  his 
eyes,  I  was  not  a  mere  servant.  He  regarded  me  rather  as 
a  loved  and  trusted  companion.  Indeed,  though  he  had 
the  name  and  prerogatives  of  master,  I  was  much  less 
under  his  control  than  he  was  under  mine.  There  was 
between  us,  something  of  a  brotherly  affection,  at  least  of 
that  kind,  which  may  exist  between  foster  brothers,  though 
neither  of  us  ever  alluded  to  our  actual  relationship,  and  he 
probably,  was  ignorant  of  it. 

I  loved  master  James  as  well  as  ever ;  but  towards  colonel 
Moore,  my  feelings  underwent  a  rapid  and  a  radical  change. 
While  I  considered  myself  merely  as  his  slave,  his  apparent 
kindness  had  gained  my  affections,  and  there  was  nothing  I 
would  not  have  done  or  suffered,  for  so  good  naturcd  and 
condescending  a  master.  But  after  I  had  learned  to  look 
upon  myself  as  his  son,  I  began  to  feel  that  I  might  justly 
claim  as  a  right,  what  I  had  till  now  regarded  as  a  pure 
gratuity.  I  began  to  feel  that  I  might  claim  much  more, 
— even  an  equal  birth-right  with  my  brethren.  Occasional 
ly,  I  had  read  the  bible  ;  and  I  now  turned  with  new 
interest  to  the  story  of  Hagar,  the  bond-woman,  and 
Ishmael  her  son ;  and  as  I  read  how  an  angel  came  to  their 
relief,  when  the  hard-hearted  Abraham  had  driven  them 
into  the  wilderness,  there  seemed  to  grow  up  within  me,  a 
wild,  strange,  uncertain  hope,  that  in  some  accident,  I  knew 
not  what,  1  too  might  find  succor  and  relief.  At  the  same 
time,  with  this  irrational  hope,  a  new  spirit  of  bitterness  burst 
in  upon  my  soul.  Unconsciously  I  clenched  my  hands,  and 
set  my  teeth,  and  fancied  myself,  as  it  were,  another 
Ishmael,  wandering  in  the  wilderness,  every  man's  hand 
against  me,  and  my  hand  against  eveiy  man.  The  injus 
tice  of  my  unnatural  parent,  stung  me  deeper  and  deeper, 
and  all  my  love  for  him  was  turned  into  hate.  The  atrocity 
of  those  laws  which  made  me  a  slave — a  slave  in  the  house 
of  my  own  father — seemed  to  glare  before  my  too  prophetic 
eyes  in  letters  of  blood.  Young  as  I  w?as,  and  as  yet  un 
touched,  I  trembled  for  the  future,  and  cursed  the  country 
and  the  hour  that  gave  me  birth  ! 

I  endeavored  as  much  as  possible,  to  conceal  these  ne\v 


ARCHY    MOORE. 


feelings  with  which  I  was  tormented  ;  and  as  deceit  is  one 
of  those  defences  against  tyranny  of  which  a  slave  early 
learns  to  avail  himself,  I  was  not  unsuccessful.  My  young 
master  would  sometimes  find  me  in  tears  ;  and  sometimes 
when  I  would  be  lost  in  thought,  he  complained  of  my 
inattention.  But  I  put  him  olf  with  plausible  excuses": 
and  though  he  suspected  there  was  something  which  I  did 
not  tell  him,  and  would  frequently  say  to  me,  "  Come 
Archy,  boy,  let  me  know  what  it  is  that  troubles  you,"  —  I 
made  light  of  the  matter  and  laughed  off  his  suspicions. 

I  was  now  about  to  lose  this  kind  master,  in  whose 
tenderness  and  affection  I  found  the  sole  palliative  that 
could  make  slavery  tolerable.  His  health  which  had  always 
been  bad,  grew  rapidly  worse,  and  confined  him  first  to  his 
chamber  and  then  to  his  bed.  I  nursed  him  during  his 
whole  illness  with  a  mother's  tenderness  and  assiduity. 
Never  was  master  more  faithfully  served  ;  —  but  it  was  the 
friend,  not  the  slave,  who  rendered  these  attentions.  He 
was  not  insensible  to  my  services  ;  he  did  not  seem  to  like 
that  any  one  but  I  should  be  about  him,  and  it  was  only 
from  my  hand  that  he  would  take  his  physic  or  his  food. 
But  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  physician  or  of  nurse  to 
save  him.  He  wasted  daily,  and  grew  weaker  every  hour. 
The  fatal  crisis  soon  came.  His  weeping  friends  were  col 
lected  about  his  bed,  —  but  the  tears  they  shed  were  not  as 
bitter  as  mine.  Almost  with  his  last  breath  he  recom 
mended  me  to  the  good  graces  of  his  father  ;  but  the  man 
who  had  closed  his  heart  to  the  promptings  of  paternal 
tenderness,  was  not  likely  to  give  much  weight  to  the 
requests  of  a  dying  son.  He  bade  his  friends  farewell,  — 
he  pressed  my  hand  in  his  ;  and,  with  a  gentle  sigh,  he 
expired  in  my  arms. 

Would  to  God,  I  had  died  with  him  ! 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  family  of  colonel  Moore  knew  well  how  truly  I  had 
loved,  and  how  faithfully  I  had  served  my  young  master. 


22  MEMOIRS    OF 

They  respected  the  profound  depth  of  my  grief,  and  for  a 
week  or  two,  I  was  suffered  to  weep  on  unmolested.  My 
feelings  were  no  longer  of  that  acute  and  piercing  kind 
which  I  have  described  in  the  preceding  chapter.  The 
temperament  of  the  mind  is  forever  changing.  That  state 
of  preternatural  sensibility,  of  which  I  have  attempted  to 
give  an  idea,  had  disappeared  when  my  attention  became 
wholly  occupied  in  the  care  of  my  dying  master.  It  was 
succeeded  by  a  dull  and  stupid  sorrow.  Apparently  I  now 
had  increased  cause  for  agitation  and  alarm.  That  which 
I  then  dreaded,  had  happened.  My  young  master,  upon 
whom  all  my  hopes  were  suspended,  lived  no  longer,  and  I 
knew  not  what  was  to  become  of  me.  But  the  fit  of  fear 
and  anxious  anticipation  was  over ;  and  I  now  waited  my 
fate  with  a  sort  of  stupid  and  careless  indifference. 

Though  not  called  upon  to  do  it,  I  continued  as  usual  to 
wait  upon  my  master's  table.  For  several  days,  I  took  my 
place  instinctively  near  where  master  James's  chair  ought 
to  have  stood  ;  till  the  sight  of  the  vacant  place  drove  me 
in  tears  to  the  opposite  comer.  In  the  mean  time,  nobody 
called  upon  me  to  do  anything,  or  seemed  to  notice  that  I 
was  present.  Even  master  William  made  an  effort  to  re 
press  his  habitual  insolence. 

But  this  could  not  last  long.  Indeed  it  was  a  stretch  of 
indulgence,  which  no  one  but  a  favorite  servant  could  have 
expected  ;  since  slaves,  in  general,  are  thought'to  have  no 
business  to  be  sorry — if  it  makes  them  unable  to  work. 

One  morning  after  breakfast,  master  William  having  dis 
cussed  his  toast  and  coffee,  began  by  telling  his  father,  that 
in  his  opinion,  the  servants  at  Spring-Meadow,  were  a  great 
deal  too  indulgently  treated.  He  was  by  this  time,  a  smart, 
dashing,  elegant  young  man,  having  returned  upwards  of  a 
year  before,  from  college,  and  quite  lately,  from  Charleston, 
in  South  Carolina,  whither  he  had  been  to  spend  a  winter, 
and  as  his  father  expressed  it,  to  wear  off  the  rusticity  of 
the  school-room.  It  was  there  perhaps,  that  he  had  learned 
the  new  precepts  of  humanity,  which  he  was  now  preach 
ing.  He  declared  that  any  tenderness,  towards  a  servant 
only  tended  to  make  him  insolent  and  discontented,  and  was 
quite  thrown  away  on  the  ungrateful  rascals.  Then,  look 


ARCHY    MOORE.  23 

ing  about,  as  if  in  search  of  some  victim  upon  whom  to 
practise  a  doctrine  so  consonant  to  his  own  disposition,  his 
<ye  lighted  upon  me.  ''There's  that  hoy  Archy — I'll  bet 
;i  hundred  to  one  I  could  make  him  one  of  the  best  ser 
vants  in  the  world.  He's  a  bright  fellow  naturally,  and 
-•  'Hiring  has  spoil'd  him,  but  poor  James's  over  indulgence. 
Come  father,  just  be  good  enough  to  give  him  to  me,  I 
\\  ant  another  servant  most  devilishly." 

Without  stopping  for  an  answer,  he  hastened  out  of  the 
room,  having,  as  he  said,  two  jockey  races  to  attend  that 
morning  ;  and  what  was  more,  a  cock-fight  into  the  bargain. 
There  was  nobody  else  at  table.  Colonel  Moore  turned 
towards  me.  He  began  with  commending  very  highly,  my 
faithful  attachment  to  his  poor  son  James.  As  he  men 
tioned  his  son's  name  the  tears  stood  in  his  eyes,  and  for  a 
moment  or  two  he  was  unable  to  speak.  He  recovered 
himself  presently,  and  added — "I  hope  now  you  will 
transfer  all  this  same  zeal  and  affection  to  master  William." 

These  words  roused  me  in  a  moment.  I  knew  master 
William  to  be  a  tyrant  from  whose  soul  custom  had  long 
since  obliterated  what  little  humanity  nature  had  bestowed 
upon  him  ;  and  to  judge  from  what  he  had  let  drop  that 
morning,  he  had  of  late  improved  upon  his  natural  inclina 
tion  for  cruelty,  and  had  proceeded  to  the  final  length  of 
reducing  tyranny  into  a  system  and  a  science.  I  knew  too 
that  from  childhood,  he  had  entertained  a  particular  spite 
against  me;  and  1  dreaded,  lest  he  was  already  devising  the 
means  of  inflicting  upon  rne  with  interest,  all  those  insults 
and  injuries  from  which  the  protection  of  his  younger 
brother  had  hitherto  shielded  me. 

It  was  with  horror  and  alarm,  that  I  found  myself  in 
danger  of  falling  into  such  hands.  I  threw  myself  at  my 
master's  feet  and  besought  him,  with  all  the  eloquence  of 
^rief  and  fear,  not  to  give  me  to  master  William.  The 
terms  in  which  I  spoke  of  his  son,  though  I  chose  the 
mildest  1  could  think  of,  and  the  horror  I  expressed  at  the 
thoughts  of  becoming  his  servant,  though  I  endeavored  as 
much  as  possible,  to  save  the  father's  feelings,  seemed  to 
make  him  angry.  The  smile  left  his  lip,  and  his  brow  grew 
dark  and  contracted.  I  began  to  despair  of  escaping  the 


24  MEMOIRS    OF 

wretched  fate  that  awaited  me  ;  and  my  despair  drove  me 
to  a  very  rash  and  foolish  action.  For  emboldened  by  the 
danger  of  becoming  the  slave  of  master  William,  I  dared 
to  hint — though  distantly  and  obscurely — at  the  informa 
tion  which  my  mother  had  communicated  on  her  death 
bed ;  and  I  even  ventured  something  like  a  half  appeal  to 
colonel  Moore's  paternal  tenderness.  At  first  he  did  not 
.seem  to  understand  me ;  but  the  moment  he  began  to  com 
prehend  my  meaning,  his  face  grew  black  as  a  thunder 
cloud,  then  became  pale,  and  immediately  was  suffused 
with  a  burning  blush,  in  which  shame  and  rage  were 
equally  commingled.  I  now  gave  myself  up  for  lost,  and 
expected  an  instant  out-break  of  fury ; — but  after  a  mo 
mentary  struggle,  colonel  Moore  seemed  to  regain  his 
composure;  even  the  habitual  smile  returned  to  his  lips; 
and  without  taking  any  notice  of  my  last  appeal,  or  giving 
any  further  signs  of  having  understood  it,  he  merely 
remarked,  that  he  did  not  know  how  to  refuse  master 
William's  request,  nor  could  he  comprehend  the  meaning  of 
my  reluctance.  It  was  mighty  foolish  ;  still  he  was  willing 
to  indulge  me  so  far,  as  to  allow  me  the  choice  of  entering 
into  master  William's  service,  or  going  into  the  field.  This 
alternative  was  proposed  with  an  air  and  a  manner,  which 
was  intended  to  stop  my  mouth,  and  allow  me  nothing  but 
the  bare  liberty  of  choosing.  It  was  indeed,  no  very 
agreeable  alternative.  But  any  thing,  even  the  hard  labor, 
scanty  fare,  and  harsh  treatment,  to  which  I  knew  the  field 
hands  were  subjected,  seemed  preferable  to  becoming  the 
sport  of  master  William's  tyranny.  I  was  piqued  too,  at 
the  cavalier  manner  in  which  my  request  had  been  treated, 
and  I  d!d  not  hesitate.  I  thanked  colonel  Moore  for  his 
great  goodness,  and  at  once,  made  choice  of  the  field.  He 
seemed  rather  surprised  at  my  selection,  and  with  a  smile 
which  bordered  close  upon  a  sneer,  bade  me  report  myself 
to  Mr  Stubbs. 

An  overseer,  is  regarded  in  all  those  parts  of  slave-hold 
ing  America,  with  which  I  ever  became  acquainted,  very 
much  in  the  same  light  in  which  people,  in  countries  uncursed 
with  slavery,  look  upon  a  hangman  ;  and  as  this  latter  em 
ployment,  however  useful  and  necessary,  has  never  sue- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  26 

needed  in  becoming  respectable,  so  the  business  of  an 
overseer  is  likely  from  its  nature,  always  to  continue 
contemptible  and  degraded.  The  young  lady  who  dines 
heartily  on  lamb,  has  a  sentimental  horror  of  the  butcher 
who  killed  it ;  and  the  slave  owner  who  lives  luxuriously 
on  the  forced  labor  of  his  slaves,  has  a  like  sentimental 
abhorrence  of  the  man  who  holds  the  whip  and  compels  the 
labor.  He  is  like  a  receiver  of  stolen  goods,  who  cannot 
bear  the  thoughts  of  stealing  himself,  but  who  has  no  objec 
tion  to  live  upon  the  proceeds  of  stolen  property.  A  thief 
is  but  a  thief;  an  overseer  but  an  overseer.  The  slave 
owner  prides  himself  upon  the  honorable  appellation  of  a 
planter ;  and  the  receiver  of  stolen  goods  assumes  the 
character  of  a  respectable  shop-keeper.  By  such  con 
temptible  juggle  do  men  deceive  not  themselves  only,  but 
oft-times  the  world  also. 

Mr  Thomas  Stubbs  was  overseer  at  Spring-Meadow,  a 
person  with  whose  name,  appearance  and  character  I  was 
perfectly  familiar,  though  hitherto  I  had  been  so  fortunate 
as  to  have  had  very  little  communication  with  him. 

He  was  a  thick  set,  clumsy  man,  about  fifty,  with  a  little 
bullet  head,  covered  with  short  tangled  hair,  and  stuck  close 
upon  his  shoulders.  His  face  was  curiously  mottled  and 
spotted,  for  what  with  sunshine,  what  with  whiskey,  and 
what  with  ague  and  fever,  brown,  red  and  sallow  seemed 
to  have  put  in  a  joint  claim  to  the  possession  of  it,  without 
having  yet  been  able  to  arrive  at  an  amicable  partition.  He 
was  generally  to  be  seen  on  horseback,  leaning  forward  over 
his  saddle,  and  brandishing  a  long  thick  whip  of  twisted 
cow-hide,  which  from  time  to  time,  he  applied  over  the 
head  and  shoulders  of  some  unfortunate  slave.  If  you  were 
within  hearing,  his  conversation,  or  rather  his  commands 
and  observations,  would  have  appeared  a  string  of  oaths, 
from  the  midst  of  which  it  was  not  very  easy  to  disentangle 
his  meaning.  "  You  damned  black  rascal  "  was  pretty 
sure  to  begin  every  sentence,  and  "  by  God,"  to  end  it.  It 
was  however,  only  when  Mr  Stubbs  had  sole  possession  of 
the  field,  that  he  sprinkled  his  orders  with  this  strong  spice 
of  brutality  ; — for  when  colonel  Moore  or  any  other  gentle 
man  happened  to  be  riding  by,  he  could  assume  quite  an  air 
3 


26  MEMOIRS    OF 

of  gentleness  and  moderation,  and  what  appears  very  sur 
prising,  was  actually  able  to  express  himself,  with  not  more 
than  one  oath  to  every  other  sentence. 

Mr  Stubbs,  in  his  management  of  the  plantation  did  not 
confine  himself  to  hard  words.  He  used  his  whip  as  freely 
as  his  tongue.  Colonel  Moore  had  received  a  European 
education  ;  and  like  every  man  educated  any  where — except 
on  a  slave  estate — he  had  a  great  dislike  to  all  unnecessary 
cruelty.  He  was  usually  made  very  angry,  about  once  a 
week,  by  some  brutal  act  on  the  part  of  his  overseer.  But 
"having  satisfied  his  outraged  feelings  by  declaring  himself 
very  much  offended,  and  Mr  Stubbs's  proceedings  to  be  quite 
intolerable,  he  ended  with  suffering  things  to  go  on  just  as 
before.  The  truth  was,  Mr  Stubbs  understood  making 
crops ;  and  such  a  man  was  too  valuable  to  be  given  up, 
for  the  mere  sentimental  satisfaction  of  protecting  the  slaves 
from  his  tyranny. 

It  was  a  great  change  to  me,  after  having  been  accustomed 
to  the  elegance  and  propriety  of  colonel  Moore's  house,  and 
the  gentle  rule  and  light  service  of  master  James,  to  pass 
under  the  despotic  control  of  a  vulgar,  ignorant  and  brutal 
blackguard.  Besides,  I  had  never  been  accustomed  to  se 
vere  and  regular  labor  ;  and  it  was  trying  indeed  to  submit 
at  once  to  the  hard  work  of  the  field.  However,  I  resolved 
to  make  the  best  of  it.  I  was  strong,  and  use  would  soon 
make  my  tasks  more  tolerable.  I  knew  well  enough,  that 
Mr  Stubbs  was  totally  destitute  of  all  humane  feelings,  but 
I  had  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  entertained  towards  me 
any  of  that  malignity  which  I  had  so  much  dreaded  in  mas 
ter  William.  From  what  I  had  known  of  him,  I  did  not 
judge  him  to  be  a  very  bad  tempered  man  ;  and  I  took  it 
for  granted  that  he  cursed  and  whipped,  not  so  much  out 
of  spite  and  ill  feeling,  but  as  a  mere  matter  of  business. 
He  seemed  to  imagine,  like  every  other  overseer,  that  it 
was  impossible  to  manage  a  plantation  in  any  other  way. 
My  diligence,  I  hoped  might  enable  me  to  escape  the  lash ; 
and  Mr  Stubbs's  vulgar  abuse,  however  provoking  the  other 
servants  might  esteem  it,  I  thought  1  might  easily  despise. 

Mr  Stubbs  listened  to  my  account  of  myself  very  gra 
ciously,  all  the  time,  rolling  his  tobacco  from  one  cheek  to 


ARCHY    MOORE.  27 

the  other,  and  squinting  at  me  with  one  of  his  little  twink 
ling  grey  eyes.  Having  cursed  me  to  his  satisfaction  for 
"  a  damned  fool,"  he  bade  me  follow  him  to  the  field.  A 
large  clumsy  hoe,  with  a  handle  six  feet  long,  was  put  into 
my  hands,  and  I  was  kept  hard  at  work  all  day. 

At  dark,  I  was  suffered  to  quit  the  field,  and  the  overseer 
pointed  out  to  me  a  miserable  little  hovel,  about  ten  feet 
square,  and  half  as  many  high,  with  a  leaky  roof,  and  with 
out  either  floor  or  window.  This  was  to  be  my  house,  or 
rather  I  was  to  share  it  with  Billy,  a  young  slave  about  my 
own  age. 

To  this  wretched  hut,  I  removed  a  chest,  containing  my 
olothes  and  a  few  other  things,  such  as  a  slave  is  permitted 
to  possess.  By  way  of  bed  and  bedding,  I  received  a  sin 
gle  blanket,  about  as  big  as  a  large  pocket  handkerchief; 
and  a  basket  of  corn  and  a  pound  or  two  of  damaged  bacon, 
were  given  me  as  my  week's  allowance  of  provisions.  But 
as  I  was  totally  destitute  of  pot,  kettle,  knife,  plate,  or  dish 
of  any  kind, — for  these  are  conveniences  which  slaves  must 
procure  as  they  can, — I  was  in  some  danger  of  being  obliged 
to  make  my  supper  on  raw  bacon.  Billy  saw  my  distress 
and  took  pity  on  me.  He  helped  me  beat  my  corn  into 
hominy,  and  lent  me  his  own  little  kettle  to  cook  it  in  ;  so 
that  about  midnight  I  was  able  to  break  a  fast  of  some  six 
teen  or  twenty  hours.  My  chest  being  both  broad  and  long, 
served  tolerably  well  for  bed,  chair  and  table.  I  sold  a  part 
of  my  clothes,  which  were  indeed  much  too  fine  for  a  field 
hand  ;  and  having  bought  myself  a  knife,  a  spoon  and  a 
kettle,  I  was  able  to  put  my  house-keeping  into  tolerable 
order. 

My  accommodations  were  as  good  as  a  field  hand  had  a 
right  to  expect ;  but  they  were  not  such  as  to  make  nit- 
particularly  happy ;  especially  as  I  had  been  used  to  some 
thing  better.  My  hands  were  blistered  with  the  hoe,  ana 
coming  in  at  night  completely  exhausted  by  a  sort  of  labor 
to  which  I  was  not  accustomed,  it  was  no  very  agreeable 
ecreation  to  be  obliged  to  beat  hominy,  and  to  be  up  till 
after- midnight  preparing  food  for  the  next  day,  with  the 
recollection  too,  that  I  was  obliged  to  turn  into  the  field 
with  the  first  dawn  of  the  morning./  But  this  labor,  severe 


28  MEMOIRS     OF 

is  it  was,  had  been  in  a  manner,  my  own  choice.  In 
choosing  it,  I  had  escaped  a  worse  tyranny  and  a  more 
bitter  servitude.  I  had  avoided  falling  into  the  hands  of 
master  William. 

As  I  shall  not  have  occasion  to  mention  that  amiable 
youth  again,  I  may  as  well  finish  his  history  here.  Some 
six  or  eight  months  after  the  death  of  his  younger  brother, 
he  became  involved  in  a  drunken  quarrel,  at  a  cock-fight. 
This  quarrel  ended  in  a  duel,  and  master  William  fell  dead 
at  the  first  fire.  His  death  was  a  great  stroke  to  colonel 
Moore,  who  seemed  for  a  long  time,  almost  inconsolable.  I 
did  not  lament  him,  either  for  his  own  sake  or  his  father's. 
[  knew  well,  that  in  his  death,  I  had  escaped  a  cruel  and 
vindictive  master ;  and  I  felt  a  stern  and  bitter  pleasure  in 
seeing  the  bereavements  of  a  man  who  had  dared  to  trample 
upon  the  sacred  ties  of  nature. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

I  HAD  the  same  task  with  those  who  had  been  field 
hands  all  their  lives  ;  but  I  was  too  proud  to  flinch  or  com 
plain.  I  exerted  myself  to  the  utmost,  so  that  even  Mr 
Stubbs  had  no  fault  to  find,  but  on  the  contrary,  pronounced 
me,  more  than  once,  a  "  right  likely  hand." 

The  cabin  which  I  shared  with  Billy,  had  a  very  leaky 
roof ;  and  as  the  weather  was  rainy,  we  found  it  by  no 
means  comfortable.  At  length,  we  determined  one  day,  to 
repair  it ;  and  to  get  time  to  do  so,  we  exerted  ourselves  to 
get  through  our  tasks  at  an  early  hour. 

We  had  finished  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and 
were  returning  together  to  the  town, — for  so  we  called  the 
collection  of  cabins,  in  which  the  servants  lived.  Mr 
Stubbs  met  us,  and  having  inquired  if  we  had  finished  ouj 
tasks,  he  muttered  something  about  our  not  having  half 
enough  to  do,  and  ordered  us  to  go  and  weed  his  garden. 
Billy  submitted  in  silence,  for  he  had  been  too  long  under 
Mr  Stubbs's  jurisdiction,  to  think  of  questioning  his  com- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  29 

mands.  But  I  ventured  to  say,  in  as  respectful  a  manner 
as  I  could,  that  as  we  had  finished  our  regular  tasks,  it 
seemed  very  hard  to  give  us  this  additional  work.  This 
put  Mr  Stubbs  into  a  liirious  passion,  and  he  swore  twenty 
oaths,  that  I  should  both  weed  the  garden  and  be  whipped 
into  the  bargain.  He  sprang  from  his  horse,  and  catching 
me  by  the  collar  of  my  shirt,  the  only  dress  I  had  on,  he 
began  to  lay  upon  me  with  his  whip.  It  was  the  first  time, 
since  I  had  ceased  to  be  a  child,  that  I  had  been  exposed 
to  this  degrading  torture.  The  pain  was  great  enough;  the 
idea  of  being  whipped  was  sufficiently  bitter;  but  these 
were  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  sharp  and  burning 
sense  of  the  insolent  injustice  that  was  done  me.  It  was 
with  the  utmost  difficulty,  that  i  restrained  myself  from 
springing  upon  my  brutal  tormentor,  and  dashing  him  to  the 
ground.  But  alas  ! — I  was  a  slave.  What  in  a  freeman, 
is  a  most  justifiable  act  of  self-defence,  becomes  in  a  slave, 
unpardonable  insolence  and  rebellion.  I  griped  my  hands, 
set  my  teeth  firmly  together,  and  bore  the  injury  the  best  I 
could.  I  was  then  turned  into  the  garden,  and  the  moon 
happening  to  be  full,  I  was  kept  there  weeding  till  near 
midnight. 

The  next  day  was  Sunday.  The  Sunday's  rest  is  the 
sole  and  single  boon  for  which  t^e  American  slave  is  in 
debted  to  the  religion  of  his  master.  That  master,  tramples 
under  foot  every  other  precept  of  the  Gospel  without  the 
slightest  hesitation,  but  so  long  as  he  does  not  compel  his 
slaves  to  work  on  Sundays,  he  thinks  himself  well  entitled 
to  the  name  of  a  Christian.  Perhaps  he  is  so, — but  if  he  is, 
a  title  so  easily  purchased  can  be  worth  but  little. 

I  resolved  to  avail  myself  of  the  Sunday's  leisure  to 
complain  to  my  master  of  the  barbarous  treatment  I  had 
experienced  the  day  before,  at  the  hands  of  Mr  Stubbs. 
Colonel  Moore  received  me  with  a  coolness  and  distance, 
quite  unusual  in  him, — for  generally  he  had  a  smile  for 
every  body,  especially  for  his  slaves.  However,  he  heard 
my  story,  and  even  condescended  to  declare  that  nothing 
gave  him  so  much  pain  as  to  have  his  servants  unnecessarily 
or  unreasonably  punished,  and  that  he  never  would  suffer 
such  things  to  take  place  upon  his  plantation.  He  then 
3* 


30 


MEMOIRS    OF 


bade  me  go  about  my  business,  having  first  assured  me, 
that  in  the  course  of  the  day,  he  would  see  Mr  Stubbs 
and  inquire  into  the  matter.  This  was  the  last  I  heard 
from  colonel  Moore.  That  same  evening,  Mr  Stubbs  sent 
for  me  to  his  house,  and  having  tied  me  to  a  tree  before  his 
door,  gave  me  forty  lashes,  and  bade  me  complain  at  the 
house  again,  if  I  dared.  "  It's  a  damned  hard  case,"  he 
added,  "  if  I  can't  lick  a  damned  nigger's  insolence  out  of 
him,  without  being  obliged  to  give  an  account  of  it !  " 
Insolence  ! — the  tyrant's  ready  plea  ! 
If  a  poor  slave  has  been  whipped  and  miserably  abused, 
and  no  other  apology  for  it  can  be  thought  of,  the  rascal's 
'insolence'  can  be  always  pleaded, — and  when  pleaded,  is 
enough  in  every  slave-holder's  estimation,  to  excuse  and 
justify  any  brutality.  The  slightest  word,  or  look,  or 
action,  that  seems  to  indicate  the  slave's  sense  of  any  injus 
tice  that  is  done  him,  is  denounced  as  insolence,  and  is 
punished  with  the  most  unrelenting  severity. 

This  was  the  second  time  I  had  experienced  the  disci 
pline  of  the  lash  ; — but  I  did  not  find  the  second  dose  any 
more  agreeable  than  hie  ftist.  A  blow  is  esteemed  among 
freemen,  the  very  highest  of  indignities  ;  and  low  as  their 
oppressors  have  sunk  them,  it  is  esteemed  an  indignity 
among  slaves.  Besides — as  strange  as  some  people  may 
think  it — a  twisted  cowhide,  laid  on  by  the  hand  of  a  strong 
man,  does  actually  inflict  a  good  deal  of  pain,  especially  if 
every  blow  brings  blood. 

I  will  leave  it  to  the  reader's  own  feelings  to  imagine, 
what  no  words  can  sufficiently  describe,  the  bitterness  of 
that  man's  misery,  who  is  every  hour  in  danger  of  experi 
encing  this  indignity  and  this  torture.  When  he  has  wrought 
up  his  fancy, — and  let  him  thank  God,  from  the  very  bottom 
of  his  heart,  that  in  his  case,  it  is  only  fancy, — to  a  lively 
idea  of  that  misery,  he  will  have  taken  the  first  step,  tow 
ards  gaining  some  notion,  however  faint  and  inadequate, 
of  what  it  is,  to  be  a  slave  ! 

I  had  now  learned  a  lesson,  which  every  slave  early 
learns, — I  found  that  I  did  not  enjoy  even  the  privilege  of 
complaining  ;  and  that  the  only  way  to  escape  a  reiteration 
of  injustice,  was  to  submit  in  silence  to  the  first  infliction 


ARCHY   MOORE.  31 

I  did  my  best  to  swallow  this  bitter  lesson,  and  to  acquire  a 
portion  of  that  hypocritical  humility,  so  necessary  to  a  per 
son  in  my  unhappy  condition.  Humility,  and  whether  it  be 
real  or  pretended,  they  care  but  little,  is  esteemed  by  mas 
ters,  the  great  and  crowning  virtue  of  a  slave  ;  for  they 
understand  by  it,  a  disposition  to  submit,  without  resistance 
or  complaint,  to  every  possible  wrong  and  indignity  ;  to 
reply  to  the  most  opprobrious  arid  unjust  accusations  with  a 
soft  voice  and  a  smiling  face  ;  to  take  kicks,  cuffs  and 
blows  as  though  they  were  favors  ;  to  kiss  the  foot  that 
treads  you  to  the  dust ! 

This  sort  of  humility  was  a  virtue,  with  which,  I  must 
confess,  nature  had  but  scantily  endowed  me ;  nor  did  I 
find  it  so  easy  as  1  might  have  desired,  to  strip  myself  of  all 
the  feelings  of  a  man.  It  was  like  quitting  the  erect  car 
riage  which  I  had  received  at  God's  hand,  and  learning  to 
crawl  on  the  earth  like  a  base  reptile.  This  was  indeed  a 
hard  lesson.  But  an  American  overseer  is  a  stern  teacher, 
and  if  I  learned  but  slowly,  it  was  not  the  fault  of  Mr 
Stubbs. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

IT  would  be  irksome  to  myself,  and  tedious  to  the  reader, 
to  enter  into  a  minute  detail  of  all  the  miserable  and  monot 
onous  incidents  that  made  up  my  life  at  this  time.  The 
last  chapter  is  a  specimen,  from  which  it  may  be  judged, 
what  sort  of  pleasures  I  enjoyed.  They  may  be  summed 
up  in  a  few  words  ;  and  the  single  sentence  which  embraces 
this  part  of  my  history,  might  suffice  to  describe  the  whole 
lives  of  many  thousand  Americans.  I  was  hard  worked,  ill 
fed,  and  well  whipped.  Mr  Stubbs  having  once  begun 
with  me,  did  not  suffer  me  to  get  over  the  effects  of  one 
flogging  before  he  inflicted  another ;  and  I  have  some  marks 
of  his  about  me,  which  I  expect  to  carry  to  the  grave.  All 
this  time  he  assured  me,  that  what  he  did  was  only  for  my 
own  good ;  and  he  swore  that  he  would  never  give  over  till 
he  had  lashed  my  damned  insolence  out  of  me. 


0»  MEMOIRS      OF 

The  present  began  to  grow  intolerable  ; — and  what  hope 
for  the  future  has  the  slave  ?  I  wished  for  death  ;  nor  do 
I  know  to  what  desperate  counsels  I  might  have  been 
driven,  when  one  of  those  changes,  to  which  a  slave  is  ever 
exposed,  but  over  which  he  can  exercise  no  control,  afford 
ed  me  some  temporary  relief  from  my  distresses. 

Colonel  Moore,  by  the  sudden  death  of  a  relation,  be 
came  heir  to  a  large  property  in  South  Carolina.  But  the 
person  deceased  had  left  a  will,  about  which  there  was 
some  dispute,  which  had  every  appearance  of  ending  in  a 
lawsuit.  The  matter  required  colonel  Moore's  persona) 
attention ;  and  he  had  lately  set  out  for  Charleston,  and 
had  taken  with  him  several  of  the  servants.  One  or  two 
also  had  recently  died  ;  and  Mrs  Moore,  soon  after  her 
husband's  departure,  sent  for  me  to  assist  in  filling  up  the 
gap  which  had  been  made  in  her  domestic  establishment. 

I  was  truly  happy  at  the  change.  I  knew  Mrs  Moore 
to  be  a  lady,  who  would  never  insult  or  trample  on  a  ser 
vant,  even  though  he  were  a  slave — unless  she  happened 
to  be  very  much  out  of  humor,  an  unfortunate  occurrence, 
which  in  her  case,  did  not  happen  oftener  than  once  or 
twice  a  week — except  indeed  in  the  very  warm  weather, 
when  the  fit  sometimes  lasted  the  whole  week  through. 

Besides,  I  hoped  that  the  recollection  of  my  fond  and 
faithful  attachment  to  her  younger  son,  who  had  always 
been  her  favorite,  would  secure  me  some  kindness  at  her 
hands.  Nor  was  I  mistaken.  The  contrast  of  my  new 
situation,  with  the  tyranny  of  Mr  Stubbs,  gave  it  almost  the 
color  of  happiness.  I  regained  my  cheerfulness,  and  my 
buoyant  spirits.  I  was  too  wise,  or  rather  this  new  influx 
of  cheerfulness  made  me  too  thoughtless,  to  trouble  myself 
about  the  future  ;  and  satisfied  with  the  temporary  relief  I 
experienced,  I  ceased  to  brood  over  the  miseries  of  my  con 
dition. 

Aoout  this  time,  Miss  Caroline,  colonel  Moore's  eldest 
daughter,  returned  from  Baltimore,  where  she  had  been 
living  for  several  years  with  an  aunt,  who  superintended  her 
education.  She  was  but  an  ordinary  girl,  without  much 
grace  or  beauty  ;  but  her  maid  Gassy,*  who  had  formerly 

*  Cassandra. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  33 

been  my  play-fellow,  and  who  returned  a  woman,  though 
she  had  left  us  a  child,  possessed  a  high  degree  of  both. 

I  learned  from  one  of  my  fellow  servants,  that  she  was 
the  daughter  of  colonel  Moore,  by  a  female  slave,  who  for 
a  year  or  two  had  shared  her  master's  favor  jointly  with  my 
mother,  but  who  had  died  many  years  since,  leaving  Gassy 
an  infant.  Her  mother  was  said  to  have  been  a  great 
beauty,  and  a  very  dangerous  rival  of  mine. 

So  far  as  regarded  personal  charms,  Cassy  was  not 
unworthy  of  her  parentage,  either  on  the  father's  or  the 
mother's  side.  She  was  not  tall,  but  the  grace  and  elegance 
of  her  figure  could  not  be  surpassed  ;  and  the  elastic  vivacity 
of  all  her  movements  afforded  a  model,  which  her  indolent 
and  languid  mistress,  who  did  nothing  but  loll  all  day  upon 
a  sofa,  might  have  imitated  with  advantage.  The  clear 
soft  olive  of  her  complexion,  brightening  in  either  cjjeek  to 
a  rich  red,  was  certainly  more  pleasing  than  the'  sickly, 
sallow  hue,  so  common  or  rather  so  universal,  among  the 
patrician  beauties  of  lower  Virginia  £  and  she  could  boast  a 
pair  of  eyes,  wfhich  for  brilliancy  and  expression,  I  have 
never  seen  surpassed. 

At  this  time,  I  prided  myself  upon  my  color,  as  much  as 
any  Virginian  of  them  all ;  and  although  I  had  found  by  a 
bitter  experience,  that  a  slave,  whether  white  or  black,  is 
still  a  slave,  and  that  the  master,  heedless  of  his  victim's 
complexion,  handles  the  whip,  with  perfect  impartiality  ; — 
still,  like  my  poor  mother,  I  thought  myself  of  a  superior 
caste,  and  would  have  felt  it  a  degradation,  to  put  myself 
on  a  level  with  those  a  few  shades  darker  than  myself. 
This  silly  pride  had  kept  me  from  forming  intimacies  with 
the  other  servants,  either  male  or  female  ;  for  I  was  deci 
dedly  whiter  than  any  of  them.  It  had  too,  justly  enough, 
exposed  me  to  an  ill  will,  of  which  I  had  more  than  once 
felt  the  consequences,  but  which  had  not  yet  wholly  cured 
me  of  my  folly. 

Cassy  had  perhaps  more  African  blood  than  I ;  but  this 
was  a  point,  however  weighty  and  important  I  had  at  first 
esteemed  it,  which,  as  I  became  more  acquainted  with  her, 
seemed  continually  of  less  consequence,  and  soon  disap 
peared  entirely  from  my  thoughts.  We  were  much  together ; 


34  MEMOIRS      OF 

and  her  beauty,  vivacity,  and  good  humor,  made  eveiy  day 
a  stronger  impression  upon  me.  I  found  myself  in  love 
before  I  had  thought  of  it ;  and  presently  I  discovered  that 
my  affection  was  not  unrequited. 

Gassy  was  one  of  nature's  children,  and  she  had  never 
learned  those  arts  of  coquetry,  often  as  skilfully  practised  by 
the  maid  as  the  mistress,  by  which  courtships  are  protracted. 
We  loved;  and  before  long,  we  talked  of  marriage.  Gassy 
consulted  her  mistress  ;  and  the  answer  was  favorable. 
Mrs  Moore  listened  with  equal  readiness  to  me.  Women 
are  never  happier,  than  when  they  have  an  opportunity  to 
dabble  in  match-making  ;  nor  does  even  the  humble  condi 
tion  of  the  parties  quite  deprive  the  business  of  its  fasci 
nation. 

It  was  determined  that  our  marriage,  should  be  a  little 
festival  among  the  servants.  The  coming  Sunday  was 
fixed  on  as  the  day  ;  and  a  Methodist  clergyman,  who 
happened  to  have  wandered  into  the  neighborhood,  readily 
undertook  to  perform  the  ceremony.  This  part  of  his 
office,  I  suppose,  he  would  have  performed  for  any  body  ; 
but  he  undertook  it  the  more  readily  for  us,  because  Gassy 
while  at  Baltimore,  had  become  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
Society. 

I  was  well  pleased  with  all  this  ;  for  it  seemed  to  give 
to  our  union  something  of  that  solemnity,  which  properly 
belonged  to  it.  In  general,  marriage  among  American 
slaves,  is  treated  as  a  matter  of  very  little  moment.  It  is  a 
mere  temporary  union,  contracted  without  ceremony,  not 
recognized  by  the  laws,  little  or  not  at  all  regarded  by  the 
masters,  and  of  course,  often  but  lightly  esteemed  by  the 
parties.  The  recollection  that  the  husband  may,  any  day, 
be  sold  into  Louisiana,  and  the  wife  into  Georgia,  holds  out 
but  a  slight  inducement  to  draw  tight  the  bonds  of  connubial 
intercourse  ;  and  the  certainty  that  the  fruits  of  their  mar 
riage,  the  children  of  their  love,  are  to  be  born  slaves, 
and  reared  to  all  the  privations  and  calamities  of  hopeless 
servitude,  is  enough  to  strike  a  damp  into  the  hearts  of  the 
fondest  couple.  Slaves  yield  to  the  impulses  of  nature, 
and  propagate  a  race  of  slaves  ;  but  save  in  a  few  rare 
instances,  servitude  is  as  fatal  to  domestic  love  as  to  all  the 


ARCHY    MOORE.  35 

other  virtues.  Some  few  choice  spirits  indeed,  will  still  rise 
superior  to  their  condition,  and  when  cut  oft*  from  every 
other  support,  will  find  within  their  own  hearts,  the  means 
of  resisting  the  deadly  and  demoralizing  influences  of  servi 
tude.  In  the  same  manner,  the  baleful  poison  of  the  plague 
or  yellow  fever — innocent  indeed  and  powerless  in  com 
parison  ! — while  it  rages  through  an  infected  city,  and 
sweeps  its  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  to  the  grave, 
finds,  here  and  there,  an  iron  constitution,  which  defies  its 
total  malignity,  and  sustains  itself  by  the  sole  aid  of  nature's 
health-preserving  power. 

On  the  Friday  before  the  Sunday  which  had  been  fixed 
upon  for  our  marriage,  colonel  Moore  returned  to  Spring- 
Meadow.  His  arrival  was  unexpected;  and  by  me,  at 
least,  very  much  unwished  for.  To  the  other  servants  who 
hastened  to  welcome  him  home,  he  spoke  with  his  usual 
kindness  and  good  nature ;  but  though  I  had  come  for 
ward  with  the  rest,  all  the  notice  he  took  of  me,  was  a 
single  stare  of  dissatisfaction.  He  appeared  to  be  surprised, 
and  that  too  not  agreeably,  to  see  me  again  in  the  House. 

The  next  day,  I  was  discharged  from  my  duties  of  house 
servant,  and  put  again  under  the  control  of  Mr  Stubbs. 
This  touched  me  to  the  quick ;  but  it  was  nothing  to  what 
I  felt  the  day  following,  when  I  went  to  the  House  to  claim 
my  bride.  I  was  told  that  she  was  gone  in  the  carriage 
with  colonel  Moore  and  his  daughter,  who  had  ridden  out 
to  call  upon  some  of  the  neighbors ;  and  that  I  need  not 
take  the  trouble  of  coming  again  to  see  her,  for  Miss  Caro 
line  did  not  choose  that  her  maid  should  marry  a  field  hand. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  describe  the  paroxysm  of  grief 
and  passion,  which  I  now  experienced.  Those  of  the  same 
ardent  temperament  with  myself  will  easily  conceive  my 
feelings ;  and  to  persons  of  a  cooler  temper,  no  description 
can  convey  an  adequate  idea.  My  promised  wife  snatched 
from  me,  and  myself  again  exposed  to  the  hateful  tyranny 
of  a  brutal  overseer  ! — and  all  so  sudden  too — and  with  such 
studied  marks  of  insult  and  oppression  ! 

I  now  felt  afresh  the  ill  effects  of  my  foolish  pride  in  keeping 
myself  separate  and  aloof  from  my  fellow  servants.  Instead 
of  sympathizing  with  me,  many  of  them  openly  rejoiced  at 


36 


MEMOIRS    OF 


my  misfortune ;  and  as  I  had  never  made  a  confidant  or 
associate  among  them,  1  had  no  friend  whose  advice  to  ask, 
or  whose  sympathy  to  seek.  At  length,  I  bethought  my 
self  of  the  Methodist  minister,  who  was  to  come  that  even 
ing  to  marry  us,  and  who  had  appeared  to  take  a  good  deal 
of  interest  in  the  welfare  of  Gassy  and  myself.  I  was  de 
sirous  not  only  of  seeking  such  advice  and  consolation  as 
he  could  afford  me,  but  I  wished  to  save  the  good  man  from 
a  useless  journey,  and  possibly  from  insult  at  Spring-Meadow  ; 
for  colonel  Moore  looked  on  all  sorts  of  preachers,  and  the 
Methodists  especially,  with  an  eye  of  very  little  favor. 

I  knew  that  the  clergyman  in  question,  held  a  meeting, 
about  five  miles  off;  and  I  resolved,  if  I  could  get  leave,  to 
go  and  hear  him.  I  applied  to  Mr  Stubbs  for  a  pass, 
that  is,  a  written  permission,  without  which  no  slave  can  go 
off  the  plantation  to  which  he  belongs,  except  at  the  risk 
of  being  stopped  by  the  first  man  he  meets,  horsewhipped, 
and  sent  home  again.  But  Mr  Stubbs  swore  that  he  was 
tired  of  such  gadding,  and  he  told  me  that  he  had  made  up 
his  mind  to  grant  no  more  passes  for  the  next  fortnight. 

To  some  sentimental  persons,  it  may  seem  hard  after  the 
slave  has  labored  six  days  for  his  master,  and  the  blessed 
seventh  at  length  gladdens  him  with  its  beams,  that  he  can 
not  be  allowed  a  little  change  of  scene,  but  must  still  be 
confined  to  the  hated  fields,  the  daily  witnesses  of  his  toils 
and  his  sufferings.  Yet  many  thrifty  managers  and  good 
disciplinarians  are,  like  Mr  Stubbs,  very  much  opposed  to 
all  gadding;  and  they  pen  up  their  slaves,  when  not  at 
work,  as  they  pen  up  their  cattle,  to  keep  them,  as  they 
say,  out  of  mischief. 

At  another  time,  this  new  piece  of  petty  tyranny,  might 
have  provoked  me  ;  but  now,  I  scarcely  regarded  it,  for  my 
whole  heart  was  absorbed  by  a  greater  passion.  I  was 
slowly  returning  towards  the  servants'  quarter,  when  a  little 
girl,  one  of  the  house  servants,  came  running  to  me,  almost 
out  of  breath.  I  knew  her  to  be  one  of  Cassy's  favorites, 
and  I  caught  her  in  my  arms.  As  soon  as  she  had  recov 
ered  her  breath,  she  said  she  had  been  looking  for  me  all 
the  morning,  for  she  had  a  message  from  Gassy ;  that  Gassy 
had  been  obliged,  much  against  her  inclination,  to  go  out 


ARCHY    MOORE. 


37 


that  morning  with  her  mistress,  but  that  I  must  not  be 
alarmed  or  down-hearted,  for  she  loved  me  as  well  as  ever. 

I  kissed  the  little  messenger,  and  thanked  her  a  thousand 
times  for  her  news.  I  then  hastened  to  my  house.  It  was 
quite  a  comfortable  little  cottage,  which  Mrs  Moore  had 
ordered  to  be  built  for  Gassy  and  myself,  but  of  which  I 
expected  every  moment  to  be  deprived.  The  news  I  had 
heard,  excited  new  commotions  in  my  bosom.  I  had  no 
sooner  sat  down,  than  I  found  it  impossible  to  keep  quiet. 
My  heart  beat  violently ;  the  fever  in  my  blood  grew  high. 
I  left  the  house  and  walked  about,  within  the  limits  of 
my  jail  yard, — for  so  I  might  justly  esteem  the  plantation  ; 
I  used  the  most  violent  exercise,  and  tried  every  means  I 
could  think  of  to  subdue  the  powerful  emotions  of  mixed 
hope  and  fear,  with  which  I  was  agitated,  and  which  I  found 
more  oppressive  than  even  the  certainty  of  misery. 

As  evening  drew  on,  I  watched  for  the  return  of  the 
carriage  ;  and  at  length,  its  distant  rumbling  caught  my  ear. 
I  hastened  towards  the  house,  in  the  hope  of  seeing  Gassy, 
and  perhaps,  of  speaking  with  her.  The  carriage  stopped 
at  the  door,  and  I  was  fast  approaching  it ;  but  at  the  in 
stant,  it  occurred  to  me,  that  it  would  be  better  not  to  risk 
being  seen  by  colonel  Moore,  who,  I  was  now  well  satis 
fied,  entertained  a  decided  hostility  towards  me,  and  whom 
I  believed  to  be  the  author  of  the  cruel  repulse  I  had  that 
morning  met  with.  This  thought  stopped  me,  and  I  drew 
back  and  returned  home,  without  catching  a  glimpse,  or 
exchanging  a  word. 

I  threw  myself  upon  my  bed ;  but  I  turned  continually 
from  side  to  side,  and  found  it  impossible  to  compose  my 
self  to  rest.  Hour  after  hour  dragged  on ;  but  I  could  not 
sleep.  It  was  past  midnight,  when  I  heard  a  slight  tap  at 
the  door,  and  a  soft  whisper,  which  thrilled  through  every 
nerve.  I  sprung  up  ;  I  opened  the  door  ;  I  clasped  her  to 
my  bosom.  It  was  Gassy  ;  it  was  my  betrothed  wife. 

She  told  me,  that  since  colonel  Moore's  return,  even1 
thing  seemed  changed  at  the  House.  Miss  Caroline  had 
told  her,  that  colonel  Moore  had  a  very  bad  opinion  of  me, 
and  was  very  much  displeased  to  find,  that  during  his  ab 
sence  I  had  been  again  employed  as  one  of  the  house  ser- 
4 


38  MEMOIRS    OF 

vants.  She  added,  that  when  he  was  told  of  our  intended 
marriage,  he  had  declared  that  Cassy  was  too  pretty  a  girl 
to  be  thrown  away  upon  such  a  scoundrel,  and  that  he 
would  undertake  to  provide  her  with  a  much  better  hus 
band.  So  her  mistress  had  bidden  her  to  think  no  more  of 
me ;  but  at  the  same  time,  had  told  her  not  to  ciy,  for 
she  would  never  leave  off  teasing  her  father,  till  he  had  ful 
filled  his  promise  ;  "  and  if  you  get  a  husband,"  the  young 
lady  added,  "that  you  know  is  all  that  any  of  us  want." 
So  thought  the  mistress ;  the  maid,  I  have  reason  to  sup 
pose,  was  rather  more  refined  in  her  notions  of  matrimony. 

I  was  not  quite  certain  how  to  interpret  this  conduct  of 
colonel  Moore's.  I  was  strongly  inclined  to  consider  it, 
only  as  a  new  out-break  of  that  spite  and  hostility,  which  I 
had  been  experiencing  ever  since  my  useless  and  foolish 
appeal  to  his  fatherly  feelings.  It  occurred  to  me  however 
as  possible,  that  his  opposition  to  our  marriage  might  spring 
from  other  motives.  Whatever  I  might  imagine,  I  kept  my 
own  counsel.  One  motive  which  occurred  to  me,  I  could 
not  think  of  myself,  with  the  slightest  patience ;  and  still 
less  could  I  bear  to  shock  and  distress  poor  Cassy,  by  the 
mention  of  it.  Another  motive,  which  I  thought  might 
possibly  have  influenced  colonel  Moore,  was  less  discredita 
ble  to  him,  and  would  have  been  flattering  to  the  pride  of 
both  Cassy  and  myself.  But  this,  I  could  not  mention,  with 
out  leading  to  disclosures,  which  I  did  not  see  fit  to  make. 

Cassy  knew  herself  to  be  colonel  Moore's  daughter ;  but 
early  in  our  acquaintance,  I  had  discovered  that  she  had  no 
idea,  that  I  was  his  son.  I  have  every  reason  to  believe, 
that  Mrs  Moore  was  perfectly  well  informed  as  to  both 
these  particulars  ;  for  they  were  of  that  sort,  which  seldom 
or  never  escape  the  eagerness  of  female  curiosity,  and  more 
especially,  the  curiosity  of  a  wife. 

Whatever  she  might  know,  she  discovered  in  it  no  im 
pediment  to  my  marriage  with  Cassy.  Nor  did  I ;  for  how 
could  that  same  regard  for  the  decencies  of  life — such  is 
the  soft  phrase  which  justifies  the  most  unnatural  cruelty— 
that  refused  to  acknowledge  our  paternity,  or  to  recognize 
any  relationship  between  us,  pretend  at  the  same  time,  and 
on  the  sole  ground  of  relationship,  to  forbid  our  union  ? 


ARCHY    MOORE.  39 

But  I  knew  that  Gassy  felt,  rather  than  reasoned ;  and 
though  bom  and  bred  a  slave,  she  possessed  great  delicacy 
of  feeling.  Besides,  she  was  a  Methodist,  and  though  as 
cheerful  and  gay  hearted  a  girl  as  I  ever  knew,  she  was 
veiy  devout  in  all  the  observances  of  her  religion.  I  feared 
to  put  our  mutual  happiness  in  jeopardy  ;  I  was  unwilling 
to  harass  Gassy,  with  what  I  esteemed  unnecessary  scru 
ples.  I  had  never  told  her  the  stoiy  of  my  parentage,  and 
every  day  I  grew  less  inclined  to  tell  it.  Accordingly  I 
made  no  other  answer  to  what  she  told  me,  except  to  say. 
that  however  little  colonel  Moore  might  like  me,  his  dislike 
was  not  my  fault. 

A  momentary  pause  followed  ; — I  pressed  Cassy's  hand 
in  mine,  and  in  a  faltering  voice,  I  asked,  what  she  intended 
to  do. 

••  I  am  your  wife  ; — I  will  never  be  any  body's  but 
yours,"  was  the  answer.  I  clasped  the  dear  girl  to  my 
heart.  We  knelt  together,  and  with  upraised  hands  invoked 
the  Deity  to  witness  and  confirm  our  union.  It  was  the 
only  sanction  in  our  power ;  and  if  twenty  priests  had  said 
a  benediction  over  us,  would  that  have  made  our  vows 
more  binding,  or  our  marriage  more  complete  ?  I  hope  at 
least,  it  would  have  rendered  it  more  fortunate. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

IT  was  impossible  for  my  wife  to  visit  me  except  by 
stealth.  She  slept  every  night  upon  the  carpet  in  her 
mistress's  room, — for  a  floor  is  esteemed  in  America,  a  good 
enough  bed  for  a  slave,  even  for  a  favorite  and  a  woman. 
She  was  liable  to  be  called  upon  in  the  night,  at  the  caprice 
of  a  mistress,  who  was  in  fact,  a  mere  spoiled  child  ;  and 
she  could  only  visit  me  at  the  risk  of  a  discovery,  which 
might  have  been  attended  with  very  unpleasant  conse 
quences  ;  for  if  these  clandestine  visits  had  been  detected, 
1  fear  that  not  all  Cassy's  charms — whatever  poets  may 
have  fabled  of  the  power  of  beauty — could  have  saved  her 
from  the  lash. 


40  MEMOIRS    UF 

Yet  short  and  uncertain  as  these  visits  were,  they  sufficed 
to  create  and  to  sustain  a  new  and  singular  state  of  feeling. 
My  wife  was  seldom  with  me,  but  her  image  was  ever 
hefore  my  eyes,  and  appeared  to  make  me  regardless  of  all 
heside.  Things  seemed  to  pass  as  in  a  happy  dream. 
The  labor  of  the  field  was  nothing ;  the  lash  of  the  over 
seer  was  scarcely  felt.  My  mind  became  so  occupied  and 
as  it  were,  filled  up,  with  the  pleasure  which  I  found  in  our 
mutual  affection,  and  by  the  anticipated  delights  of  each 
successive  interview,  that  it  seemed  to  have  no  room  for 
disagreeable  emotions.  Strong  as  was  my  passion,  there 
was  nothing  in  it,  uneasy  or  unsatisfied.  When  I  clasped 
the  dear  girl  to  my  bosom,  I  seemed  to  have  reached  the 
height  of  human  fruition.  I  was  happy  ;  greater  happi 
ness  I  could  not  imagine,  and  did  not  desire. 

The  intoxication  of  passion  is  the  same  in  the  slave  and 
in  the  master ;  it  is  exquisite  ;  and  while  it  lasts,  all-suffi 
cient  in  itself.  I  found  it  so.  With  almost  every  thing  to 
make  me  miserable,  still  was  I  happy, — for  the  excess  of 
my  passion  rendered  me  insensible  to  any  thing  save  its 
own  indulgence. 

But  such  ecstasies  are  unsuited  to  the  human  constitu 
tion.  They  are  soon  over,  and  perhaps  are  ever  purchased 
at  too  dear  a  price  ;  for  they  are  but  too  apt  to  be  succeed 
ed  by  all  the  anguish  of  disappointed  hope,  and  all  the 
bitterness  of  deep  despair.  Still  I  look  back  with  pleasure 
to  that  time.  It  is  one  of  the  bright  spots  of  my  existence 
which  eager  memory  discovers  in  her  retrospections,  scat 
tered  and  scarcely  visible, — tiny  islets  of  delight,  surrounded 
on  all  sides,  by  a  gloomy  and  tempestuous  ocean. 

We  had  been  married  about  a  fortnight.  It  was  near 
midnight,  and  I  was  sitting  before  my  door,  waiting  for  my 
wife  to  come.  The  moon  was  full  and  bright  ;  the  sky 
was  cloudless.  I  \vas  still  at  the  height  and  flood  of  my 
intoxication  ;  and  as  I  watched  the  planet,  and  admired 
her  brightness,  I  gave  thanks  to  heaven  that  the  base  ten 
dencies  of  a  servile  condition,  had  not  yet  totally  extin 
guished  within  me,  all  the  higher  and  nobler  emotions  of 
man's  nature. 

Presently  I  observed  a  figure  approaching.     I  should 


ARCHY    MOORE.  41 

have  known  her  at  any  distance,  and  I  sprang  forward  and 
caught  my  wife  in  my  anus.  But  as  I  pressed  her  to  my 
heart,  I  felt  her  bosom  to  be  strangely  agitated  ;  and  when 
I  brought  her  face  to  mine,  my  cheek  was  moistened  with 
her  tears. 

Alarmed  at  these  unusual  indications,  I  hurried  her  into 
the  house,  and  hastily  inquired  the  cause  of  her  agitation. 
My  inquiries  appeared  to  increase  it.  She  sunk  her  head 
upon  my  breast  ;  burst  into  sobs  ;  and  seemed  wholly 
incapable  of  spealdng.  I  knew  not  what  to  think,  or  what 
to  do.  I  exerted  myself  to  compose  her  ;  I  kissed  off  the 
tears  that  trickled  fast  down  her  cheeks  ;  I  pressed  my 
hand  against  her  beating  heart,  as  if,  in  that  way,  I  could 
have  checked  its  palpitations.  At  length  she  grew  more 
calm  ;  but  it  was  by  slow  degrees,  and  in  broken  sen 
tences,  that  I  learned  the  origin  of  her  terror. 

It  seemed  that  colonel  Moore,  ever  since  his  return,  had 
distinguished  her  by  particular  kindness.  He  had  made  her 
several  little  presents ;  had  sought  frequent  occasions  to  talk 
with  her,  and  was  ever,  half  jocosely,  complimenting  her 
beauty.  He  had  even  dropped  certain  hints,  which  Gassy 
could  not  help  understanding,  but  of  which,  she  thought  it 
best  to  take  no  notice.  He  was  not  to  be  repelled  in  that 
way  ;  but  proceeded  to  words  and  actions,  of  which,  it  was 
not  possible  for  her  to  affect  to  misunderstand  the  meaning. 
Her  native  modesty,  her  love  for  me,  her  religious  feelings, 
were  all  alarmed ;  and  the  poor  girl  began  to  tremble  at  the 
fate  that  seemed  to  await  her.  But  as  yet,  she  kept  her 
terrors  to  herself.  She  was  reluctant  to  torture  me  with 
the  story  of  insults,  which  however  they  might  pierce  my 
heart,  I  had  no  power  to  repel. 

That  day,  Mrs  Moore  and  her  daughter  had  gone  to  visit 
one  of  the  neighbors,  and  Gassy  was  left  at  home.  She 
was  employed  on  some  needle-work  in  her  mistress's  room, 
when  colonel  Moore  entered.  She  rose  up  hastily  and 
would  have  gone  away ;  but  he  bade  her  stop  and  listen 
to  what  he  had  to  say  to  her.  He  did  not  seem  to  notice 
her  agitation,  and  appeared  perfectly  self-possessed  himself. 
He  told  her  that  he  had  promised  her  mistress  to  provide 
her  with  a  husband,  in  place  of  that  scoundrel  Archy  ;  that 
4* 


lay  body  who  was 

'i    t/> 


:•   •  -. : :-  •    '. ; 


Tbk  be  satid  winb  a  tone  of  tendenje^f.  *  r.ir:h  DO  doubt. 

be  ujeant  to  be  im^titk-.     To  n&u;y  '*'#{&*&.  in  Ca^y's 

.  •    :    \-  .  ".  - 

.......  ^ 

•  •  •.       -  .         ' 

:.--. ;.»','  .        .":  .  .•  -    - 

.'•-.-.-'.  .     .        '.  '    : 

—    -  ••';<rl — '.V;    ftfjUHdoeried — her   breaihing    becaroe 

.-  -.  -  .  -  .        •  •     -       •  .  g 

:' •          .  •         •    -  •  . 

;      -     -  '       -  C  '    •  •  _  r-.r-v-  '  ;J 

C/okmel  yiffjt*-    ''*JP  \jf^iPY<xL  c^juld  ^X  have  mkund^fi' 
JtDod  die  fee£sM^  with  which  dw:  lideoed  to  hk  ofe.     But 

•     •:,..        -  v        .      . 

afl  die  adranacM  d*  would  derive  Wn  tJ.l'.  v;:.:.<*:.'sl, 


him  by  y>bf  aud  Us3irfE;  winch  sbt  «t/ove  in  vain  t/> 
Upon  this,  colonel  Moore  in  a  lone  of  ;x>f^';  a/id  ri 
one,  toM  her  "  not  to  be  a  feol  ;"  atod  catebiii^  one  of  her 
bands  in  b»,  he  threw  hi*  atrn  about  her  wakt,  %nd  '^<J/. 
her  not  provoke  him  by  a  u%ier«$  r^ktwv:/;.  Sbf;  wiiei  <-A 
a  fergara  of  wrpw/;  and  tenror9  and  sunk  at  \m  fait.  At 
that  moroent,  the  vjwivf  of  the  cswnria^e  %lv&k  fclJ,  %ne  r^i/J, 
Bb?  hea  verity  rrfj*k;  on  f*er  rrar.  Her  master  b'^rd  it  t^x>  ; 
for  1  ie  let  go  hk  ^f-at^,  a/id  mistteiriri^  3/jrr;^bm^  about 
another  tiri*fr;  k^tily  l/ift  tiw  v/nn.  She  rewjasofcd  stltofM 
ifBidcgn  oa  th^;  fvx/T;  t«!  3  t)»e  v//fyJ  of  her  /ftj»tife**'»  Jootetei* 
in  tl<e  pflttfi^e,  iw:aLWl  he;  to  nenelC  T7;e  re^t  r>f  the 
atenooo  and  evening  ^)M?  liad  pawwjd,  irfie  f^ardly  knew 


[je  had  haidly  bw»  wtt&At:  of 
hot  a  painful  f^ing  of  lan^y/r  */.'!  oppre^'^yn.     She 
had        dam^d  to  leave  beV  roktrm't  /'/*»;  and  ha/) 


,: 


rvar  bespit  m:i>  de   iraa?  oi  -ier 

iXicCttX*. 

r^nl   prowrc^r  1 — iJi^   « 


i^siu^  oc  i 

's  SSXT  ;  iz«i  fcrxz^e  is  k  ZZLJ 

AstrMugc.  I  belli  ^.e  p«Lz-_z^ 
ii  s     inni^  I  Ss 


c^:  3.       Li    BKKSL  I 

w  wvQ,  sbu  C«£s?y'>  c^aifry  ^i^ 

*••-•»'•.  .;••..!:••    _:    -  XLU  2    :c^  T^. 


, 


T 

re  JITT  venue 
rmit   ;jf  <:• 
bur  c£    ciiik*  conkrc-  -*^c^c  :t 


?  of 

£    itiBitf 

ie 

x>  oe  33Lj  itjajec.  1 
:  £ie  ^ass.  cc  aifi^^cesraxLi^:  itrrt> 
-i?    of    4 


^  JstruxT  **ifv  i^ 
4  T«T»  »iv«sstf  ^* 


i£Dr.     Ot" 


at    r**  cifisiev  si  x 


-.v    .      ;T    V>Vi;.:.     .>,.-.       -      C.      L 

.  :c 


44  MEMOIRS    OF 

by  the  offender's  life.  But  beyond  this,  he  did  not  dream 
of  prohibition  or  restraint.  Hardened  and  emboldened  by 
certain  impunity, — provided  the  sufferer  were  a  slave, — he 
regarded  the  most  atrocious  outrage  that  could  be  perpe 
trated  upon  the  person  and  feelings  of  a  woman,  rather  as  a 
matter  of  jest,  a  thing  to  be  laughed  at  over  the  fourth  bottle, 
than  a  subject  of  serious  and  sober  reprehension. 

Of  all  this,  I  was  well  aware.  I  had  from  the  first 
foreseen,  that  Cassy  would  be  devoted  by  her  master  to  the 
same  purposes  which  had  been  fulfilled  by  my  mother  and 
her  own.  It  was  from  these  intentions,  as  I  had  all  along 
believed,  that  his  opposition  to  our  marriage  had  originated. 
In  imagining  that  it  might  spring  from  another  cause,  I  had 
done  him  an  honor  to  which — as  was  now  too  evident — he 
had  not  the  slightest  title.  What  I  had  just  now  heard,  I 
had  daily  expected  to  hear.  I  had  expected  it ;  yet  such 
had  been  my  intoxication,  that  even  anticipations  terrible  as 
this,  had  not  been  able  to  alarm  or  distress  me ;  and  now 
that  anticipation  was  changed  into  reality,  still  I  remained 
unmoved.  The  ecstasy  of  passion  still  sustained  me ;  and 
as  I  pressed  my  wretched,  trembling  wife  to  my  bosom,  I 
still  rose  superior  to  the  calamity  that  assailed  me  ;  even 
yet,  I  was  happy. 

This  seems  incredible  ? — 

Love  then  as  I  did ;  or  if  that  suit  your  temperament 
better,  hate  with  the  same  intensity  with  which  I  loved.  Be 
absorbed  in  any  passion,  and  while  the  fit  continues,  you  will 
find  yourself  endowed  with  a  surprising  and  almost  super 
human  energy. 

My  mind  was  already  made  up.  The  unhappy  slave 
has  but  one  way  of  escaping  any  threatening  infliction ;  a 
poor  and  wretched  resource,  to  which  he  recurs  always  at  the 
imminent  risk  of  redoubling  his  miseries.  That  remedy  is 
flight. 

Our  preparations  were  soon  made.  My  wife  returned 
to  the  House,  and  gathered  up  a  little  buudle  of  clothing. 
In  the  mean  time,  I  employed  myself  in  collecting  such 
provisions  as  I  could  readiest  lay  my  hands  on.  A  couple 
of  blankets,  a  hatchet,  a  little  kettle,  and  a  few  other  small 
articles,  completed  my  equipments ;  and  by  the  time  my 


ARCHY   MOORE.  46 

wife  returned,  I  was  ready  for  a  start.  We  set  out,  with  no 
other  companion,  but  a  faithful  dog.  I  did  not  wish  to  take 
him,  for  fear  that  some  how  or  other,  he  might  lead  to  our 
detection ;  but  he  would  not  be  driven  back,  and  I  was 
afraid  to  tie  him,  lest  his  bowlings  might  give  an  alarm,  and 
lead  to  an  immediate  pursuit. 

Lower  Virginia  had  already  begun  to  feel  the  effects  of 
that  blight,  which  has  since  lighted  so  heavily  upon  her, 
and  which  in  truth,  she  has  so  well  deserved.  Already  her 
fields  were  beginning  to  be  deserted;  already  impenetrable 
thickets  had  commenced  to  cover  plantations,  which,  had 
the  soil  been  cultivated  by  freemen,  might  still  have  pro 
duced  a  rich  and  abundant  harvest.  There  was  a  deserted 
plantation  about  ten  miles  from  Spring-Meadow.  I  had 
formerly  visited  it  several  times,  in  company  with  my  young 
master,  James,  who,  when  he  was  well  enough  to  ride  about, 
had  a  strange  taste  for  wandering  into  out-of-the-way  places. 
It  was  thither  that,  in  the  hurry  of  the  moment,  I  resolved 
to  go. 

The  by-road  which  had  formerly  led  to  this  estate, 
and  the  fields  on  both  sides,  were  grown  over  with  small 
scrubby  pines,  so  close  and  tangled  as  to  render  the  thicket 
almost  impenetrable.  I  contrived  however,  to  keep  on  in  the 
right  direction.  But  the  difficulties  of  the  way  were  so 
great,  that  the  morning  had  dawned  before  we  reached  the 
plantation  buildings.  They  were  still  standing ;  but  in  a 
most  dilapidated  condition.  The  great  House  had  been  a 
structure  of  targe  size,  and  considerable  pretensions.  But 
the  windows  were  gone,  the  doors  had  dropped  from  their 
hinges,  and  the  roof  was  partly  fallen  in.  The  court  yarci 
was  completely  grown  up  with  young  trees.  Wild  vines 
were  creeping  over  the  house  ; — and  all  was  silent,  desolate 
and  deserted.  The  stables,  and  what  had  been  the 
servants'  quarter,  were  mere  heaps  of  ruins,  overgrown  with 
weeds  and  grass. 

At  some  distance  behind  the  house,  there  was  a  rapid 
descent,  which  formed  one  side  of  a  deep  ravine  ;  and  near 
the  bottom  of  this  hollow,  a  fine  bubbling  spring  burst  from 
under  the  hill.  It  was  now  half  choked  with  leaves  and 
sand,  but  its  waters  were  pure  and  cool  as  ever.  Near  the 


46  MEMOIRS    OF 

spring,  was  a  little  low  building  of  brick,  which  perhaps  had 
been  intended  for  a  dairy,  or  some  such  purpose.  The  door 
was  gone,  and  half  the  roof  had  tumbled  in.  The  other 
half  still  kept  its  position,  and  the  vacancy  occasioned  by 
the  part  that  had  fallen,  served  well  enough  to  admit  the 
light  and  air,  and  to  supply  the  place  of  windows,  which 
had  formed  no  part  of  the  original  construction.  This 
ruinous  little  building  was  shaded  by  several  large  and 
ancient  trees ;  and  wras  so  completely  hidden  by  a  more 
recent  growth,  as  to  be  invisible  at  the  distance  of  a  few 
paces.  It  was  by  mere  accident  that  we  stumbled  upon  it, 
as  we  were  searching  for  the  spring,  of  which  I  had  drank 
upon  my  former  visits,  but  the  situation  of  which,  I  did  not 
exactly  recollect.  It  struck  us  at  once,  that  this  was  the 
place  for  our  temporary  habitation  ;  and  we  resolved  forth 
with  to  clear  it  of  the  rubbish  it  contained,  and  to  turn  it 
mto  a  dwelling. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

I  KNEW  that  the  place  where  we  now  were,  was  veiy 
seldom  visited  by  any  body.  The  deserted  house  had  the 
reputation  of  being  haunted  ;  and  this,  as  well  as  its  seclu 
sion  from  the  road,  and  the  almost  impenetrable  thickets  by 
which  it  was  surrounded,  would  serve  to  protect  us  against 
intruders.  There  were  several  plantations  about  it ;  for  it 
occupied  the  highest  ground  between  two  rivers,  which 
flowed  at  no  great  distance  apart,  and  of  which  the  low 
grounds  were  still  in  cultivation.  But  there  were  no  culti 
vated  fields  nearer  than  four  or  five  miles  ;  and  no  houses 
nearer  than  Spring-Meadow,  which,  I  have  said,  was  some 
ten  or  twelve  miles  distant.  I  judged  that  for  the  present, 
we  might  remain  secure  in  this  retreat ;  and  it  seemed  our 
best  policy  to  suffer  the  search  for  us  to  be  pretty  well  over, 
before  we  attempted  to  continue  our  flight. 

In  the  mean  time,  we  exerted  ourselves  to  make  things 
as  comfortable  as  possible.  It  was  the  height  of  summer  ; 


ARCHY   MOORE.  47 

and  we  anticipated  but  little  inconvenience  from  the  open 
ness  of  our  habitation.  A  heap  of  pine  straw,  in  one  corner 
of  our  ruinous  hovel,  formed  our  bed  ;  and  sweeter  slumbers, 
not  down  itself  could  have  ensured.  Out  of  such  materials 
as  the  wainscoting  of  the  deserted  house  supplied,  I  made 
two  rude  stools,  and  something  that  served  for  a  table. 
The  spring  furnished  us  with  water ;  our  principal  concern 
\vas,  to  provide  ourselves  with  food.  The  woods  and  thick 
ets  produced  some  wild  fruits ;  and  the  peach-orchard  near 
the  house,  though  choked  and  shaded  by  a  more  recent 
growth,  still  continued  to  bear.  I  was  an  adept  in  the  art 
of  snaring  rabbits,  and  such  other  small  game  as  the  woods 
supplied.  The  spring  which  furnished  us  with  water,  was 
one  of  the  heads  of  a  little  branch  or  brook  which  dis- 
r  barged,  at  a  short  distance,  into  a  larger  stream.  In  that 
stream  there  were  fish.  But  our  chief  resource  was  in  the 
neighboring  corn-fields,  which  already  furnished  roasting 
ears,  and  from  which  I  did  not  scruple  to  draw  a  plentiful 
supply. 

On  the  whole, — though  we  were  both  quite  unaccus 
tomed  to  so  wild  a  livelihood, — we  passed  our  time  very 
agreeably.  Those  who  are  always  idle  can  never  know 
the  true  luxury  of  idleness,  the  real  pleasure  with  which  he 
who  has  been  pushed  to  work  against  his  will,  relaxes  hi? 
strained  muscles,  and  delivers  himself  up  to  the  delight  of 
doing  nothing.  I  used  to  lie  for  hours,  in  a  dreamy  sort  of 
indolence,  outstretched  upon  the  shady  slope,  enjoying  the 
sweet  consciousness  of  being  my  own  master,  and  luxuria 
ting  in  the  idea  that  I  need  come  or  go  at  no  one's  bidding, 
hut  might  work  or  be  idle  as  suited  my  own  good  will.  No 
wonder  that  emancipated  slaves  are  inclined  to  indolence. 
It  is  to  them  a  new  pleasure.  Labor,  in  their  minds,  is  in- 
dissolubly  associated  with  servitude  and  the  whip  ;  and  not 
to  work,  they  have  ever  been  taught  to  look  upon  as  the 
budge  and  peculiar  distinction  of  freedom. 

The  present  was  passing  pleasantly  enough ;  but  it  was 
necessary  to  be  thinking  about  the  future.  We  had  always 
regarded  our  present  place  of  refuge  as  temporary  only  ; 
and  it  was  now  time  to  think  of  leaving  it.  I  should  have 
esteemed  it  delightful  indeed,  to  pass  a  whole  life  of  solitude 
and  seclusion  with  Cassy,  where,  if  we  had  lacked  the 


43 


MEMOIRS    OF 


pleasures  of  society,  we  might  have  escaped  its  ten-fold 
greater  ills.  But  this  was  not  possible.  The  American 
climate  was  never  meant  for  hermits.  Our  present  station 
would  answer  well  enough  for  a  summer  retreat ;  but  the 
winter  would  render  it  untenable ;  and  before  long,  winter 
would  be  approaching.  Our  hope  was  to  escape  into  the 
free  states, — for  I  knew  that  north  of  Virginia  there  was  a 
country  where  there  were  no  slaves.  If  we  could  once  get 
away  from  the  neighborhood  of  Spring-Meadow,  where  I 
was  well  known,  we  should  enjoy  one  great  advantage  du 
ring  the  remainder  of  our  flight.  Our  complexions  wrould 
not  betray  our  servile  condition ;  and  we  should  find  no 
great  difficulty,  we  thought,  in  passing  ourselves  as  free 
citizens  of  Virginia.  Colonel  Moore  had,  no  doubt,  filled 
the  country  round,  with  advertisements,  in  which  our  per 
sons  were  accurately  described,  and  every  peculiarity  of 
each  of  us  carefully  noted.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to 
use  great  caution  ;  and  I  considered  it  essential  to  our  escape 
that  Gassy  should  adopt  some  disguise.  What  this  should 
be,  or  where  we  should  get  it,  was  now  the  question. 

We  finally  determined  to  assume  the  character  of  persons 
travelling  to  the  north  to  seek  our  fortunes  ;  and  we  arranged 
that  Cassy  should  adopt  a  man's  dress,  and  accompany  me 
in  the  character  of  a  younger  brother.  The  night  on  which 
we  had  left  Spring-Meadow,  I  had  brought  away  my  best 
suit,  one  of  the  last  gifts  of  poor  master  James,  and  such 
as  would  well  enough  enable  me  to  play  the  part  of  a  trav 
elling  Virginian.  But  I  had  neither  hat  nor  shoes ;  nor 
any  clothes  whatever,  that  could  properly  serve  as  a  dis 
guise  for  Cassy. 

Luckily  I  had  a  small  sum,  the  accumulated  savings  of 
master  James's  liberality,  which  I  had  always  kept  in  re 
serve,  in  the  hope  and  expectation  that  I  should  sometime 
have  a  use  for  it.  This  money,  I  had  been  careful  to  take 
with  me ;  and  it  was  now  our  sole  reliance  not  only  for  the 
expenses  of  the  road,  but  for  procuring  the  means,  without 
which  we  could  not  start  at  all. 

But  though  we  had  the  money,  how  could  we  make  any 
use  of  it,  without  running  a  very  serious  risk  of  detection  ? 

There  lived,  about  five  or  six  miles  from  Spring-Meadow, 
and  near  the  same  distance  from  us.  one  Mr  James  Gordon. 


ARCHY   MOORE.  49 

He  kept  a  little  store;  and  bis  principal  customers  were 
the  slaves  of  the  neighboring  plantations.  Mr  James  Gor 
don,  or  Jemmy  Gordon,  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  was 
one  of  those  poor  white  men,  of  whom  the  number  in  lower 
Virginia,  is,  or  was  very  considerable,  and  who  are  spoken 
of,  even  by  the  slaves  themselves,  with  a  sort  of  contempt. 
Me  had  neither  lands  nor  servants;  for  his  father  before 
him,  had  been  a  poor  white  man.  He  had  been  educated 
to  no  trade  ;  for  where  every  planter  has  his  own  mechan 
ics  on  his  own  plantation,  a  free  workman  can  expect  no 
encouragement.  The  only  resource  for  a  man  in  Jemmy 
Gordon's  situation,  is  to  find  employment  as  an  overseer  for 
some  of  his  richer  neighbors.  But  in  Virginia,  there  are 
more  persons  who  desire  to  be  overseers  than  there  are 
plantations  to  oversee.  Besides,  Mr  Gordon  was  one  of 
those  careless,  easy,  good  natured,  indolent  sort  of  men, 
who  are  generally  pronounced  good-for-nothing.  He  never 
could  bring  himself  to  that  ever  watchful  scrutiny  and  as 
siduous  oversight,  which  is  so  necessary  among  slaves,  whose 
maxim  it  is  to  work  as  little  as  possible,  and  to  plunder  all 
they  can.  He  was  apt  enough  to  get  into  a  passion,  and 
cut  and  slash,  right  and  left,  without  discrimination  :  but  he 
was  incapable  of  that  regular  severity,  and  systematic  cru 
elty,  by  which  other  overseers  gained  the  reputation  of  ex 
cellent  disciplinarians.  Moreover,  on  a  certain  plantation 
of  which  he  had  been  the  manager,  some  large  vacancies 
had  occurred  in  the  corn-crib,  which  were  never  very  clear 
ly  accounted  for.  How  far  this  was  occasioned  by  negli 
gence,  or  how  far  by  dishonesty,  was  never,  so  far  as  I 
know,  satisfactorily  determined.  All  I  can  say  is,  that  Mr 
Gordon  was  dismissed  from  his  employment,  and  found  it  so 
difficult  to  get  a  new  situation,  that  he  gave  up  the  search  in 
despair,  and  resolved  to  turn  trader.  He  had  nothing  to  be 
gin  upon ;  and  of  course,  traded  in  a  very  small  way.  He 
dealt  principally  in  whiskey,  but  in  addition,  kept  shoes,  and 
such  articles  of  clothing  as  slaves  are  in  the  habit  of  purchas 
ing  to  eke  out  the  miserable  and  insufficient  supply,  which 
they  receive  from  their  masters.  He  took  money  in  pay 
ment,  but  likewise  corn  and  other  produce — without  any 
strict  inquiry  how  his  customers  came  into  possession  of  it. 
5 


50  MEMOIRS    OF 

It  is  this  class  of  men  against  whom  the  legislators  of  Vir 
ginia  have  exercised  all  their  ingenuity  in  the  construction 
of  penal  statutes  ;  and  against  whom,  they  have  exerted  all 
the  severity  which  they  have  dared  to  use  towards  men. 
who  might  still  claim  the  title  and  demand  the  rights  of 
*  free  white  citizens.'  But  these  penal  enactments,  have 
failed,  in  a  great  measure,  of  their  object.  Though  the 
trade  with  slaves  is  dangerous  and  disgraceful,  and  the 
traders,  in  consequence,  are  desperate  and  reckless,  their 
number  is  still  so  great  as  to  furnish  the  planters  with  an 
inexhaustible  topic  of  declamation  and  complaint, — and  to 
supply  the  slaves  with  numerous  little  comforts  and  luxuries 
which  they  might  in  vain  have  expected  from  the  indul 
gence  or  humanity  of  their  masters. 

These  traders  are.  no  doubt,  the  receivers  of  plunder ; 
and  no  small  proportion  of  what  they  sell  is  paid  for  in  that 
way.  It  is  in  vain,  that  tyranny  fences  itself  about  with 
the  terrors  of  the  law.  It  is  in  vain,  that  the  slave-holder 
flatters  himself  with  the  hope  of  appropriating  to  his  own 
sole  use,  the  entire  fruits  of  the  forced  labors  of  his  fellowr 
men.  The  slave  cannot  resist  the  compulsion,  with  which 
the  law  has  armed  the  hand  of  his  master.  The  lash  is  an 
ensign  of  authority  and  of  torture,  to  which  the  stoutest 
heart,  and  the  most  stubborn  will,  is  soon  compelled  to  yield. 
But  fraud  is  the  natural  counterpart  to  tyranny ;  and  cun 
ning  is  ever  the  defence  of  the  weak  against  the  oppressions 
of  the  strong.  Can  the  unhappy  slave,  who  has  been  com 
pelled  to  plant  in  the  day  time  for  his  master's  benefit,  be 
blamed  if  he  strives  in  the  night  to  gather  some  gleaning 
of  the  crop,  for  his  own  use  ? 

Blame  him  you  who  can  !  Join,  if  you  will,  in  the 
clamor  of  the  master  against  the  cursed  knavery  of  his 
slaves  !  That  same  master,  who  thinks  it  no  wrong  to  rob 
those  slaves  of  their  labor,  their  sole  possession,  their  only 
property !  He  to  talk  about  theft ! — he — the  slave-holder 
— who  has  carried  the  art  of  pillage  to  a  perfection  of  which 
robbers  and  pirates  never  dreamed !  They  are  content  to 
snatch  such  casual  spoils  as  chance  may  offer;  but  the 
slave-holder — whip  in  hand — extorts  from  his  victims,  a 
large,  a  regular,  an  annual  plunder !  Nay  more ;  he  sell? 


ARCHY     MOORE.  51 

for  money,  he  has  inherited  from  his  lather,  and  he  hopes 
to  transmit  to  his  children,  the  privilege  of  continuing  this 
systematic  pillage ! 

I  had  once  saved  Mr  Gordon's  life,  and  for  this  piece  of 
service  he  had  always  expressed  the  greatest  gratitude. 
This  had  happened  several  years  before.  He  was  fishing 
on  the  river  not  far  from  Spring-Meadow,  when  a  sudden 
squall  upset  his  boat.  It  was  no  great  distance  from  the 
shore,  but  Mr  Gordon  was  no  swimmer,  and  was  in  the 
greatest  danger.  Master  James  and  myself  happened  to 
be  walking  along  the  bank.  We  saw  a  man  struggling  in 
the  water,  and  I  plunged  in  after  him,  and  caught  him  as 
he  was  sinking  the  third  time.  This  service,  Mr  Gordon 
was  in  the  habit  of  acknowledging  by  occasional  little  pres 
ents  ;  and  I  flattered  myself  with  the  hope  that  he  would 
not  refuse  his  aid  in  my  present  circumstances.  My  plan 
was,  to  get  from  Mr  Gordon,  a  hat  and  shoes  for  myself,  a 
man's  dress  for  Gassy,  and  such  information  as  he  could 
give  us  about  the  route  we  ought  to  follow.  A  great  man} 
difficulties  presented  themselves  to  my  mind  in  the  prose 
cution  of  the  journey.  I  resolved  however  not  to  afflict 
myself  with  borrowed  trouble,  but  to  leave  the  future  to 
take  care  of  itself. 

The  first  thing  was,  to  see  Mr  Gordon  and  find  out  how 
far  he  was  disposed  to  assist  me.  His  house  and  store — 
both  under  the  same  roof — were  in  a  lonely  part  of  the 
country,  near  the  crossing  of  two  roads,  and  out  of  sight  of 
any  other  buildings.  I  did  not  think  it  safe  to  trust  myself 
upon  the  high-way  earlier  than  midnight ;  and  it  was  con 
siderably  past  that  hour  before  I  approached  Mr  Gordon's 
house.  When  I  came  within  sight  of  it,  I  hesitated,  and 
more  than  once,  came  to  a  halt.  I  did  not  like  to  trust  my 
liberty  and  all  my  hopes  of  happiness,  to  the  unsure  guar 
dianship  of  any  man's  gratitude,  and  least  of  all,  such  a  man 
as  Mr  Gordon.  The  risk  seemed  too  great  ;  and  my 
heart  sunk  within  me,  when  I  called  to  mind  how  frail  was 
the  prop  on  which  depended,  if  not  my  life,  every  thing 
certainly  that  made  life  desirable. 

I  was  on  the  point  of  turning  back ;  but  I  recollected 
that  this  was  my  only  resource.  Mr  Gordon  must  help  us 


52  MEMOIRS    OF 

to  escape,  or  our  chance  was  worth  nothing.  This  thought 
pushed  me  on.  I  plucked  up  courage  and  approached  the 
door.  Three  or  four  dogs  which  kept  watch  about  the 
house,  immediately  opened  in  full  chorus  ;  but  though  they 
barked  loud  enough,  they  gave  no  signs  of  any  intention  to 
attack  me.  I  knocked  again  ; — and  pretty  soon,  Mr  Gor 
don  thrust  his  head  from  the  window,  bade  his  dogs  be 
quiet,  and  inquired  who  I  was,  and  what  I  wanted.  I 
begged  him  to  open  the  door  and  let  me  in,  for  I  had  busi 
ness  with  him.  Expecting  perhaps,  to  drive  a  profitable 
trade  with  some  midnight  customer,  he  hastened  to  do  as  I 
had  requested.  He  opened  the  door  ;  the  moon-light,  as  I 
entered,  fell  upon  my  face,  and  he  recognized  me  at  once. 

"  My  God !  Archy,  is  it  you," — and  he  spoke  it  with  an 
air  of  the  greatest  surprise — "where,  in  the  devil's  name, 
did  you  spring  from  ? — I  hoped  you  were  clear  out  of  the 
neighborhood  a  month  ago," — and  with  these  words  he 
drew  me  into  the  house  and  shut  the  door. 

I  told  him,  that  I  had  a  place  of  concealment  near  by, 
and  that  I  had  come  to  get  a  little  assistance  from  him  in 
making  my  escape. 

"  Any  thing  in  reason,  Archy  ;  but  if  I  were  caught 
helping  off  a  runaway,  it  would  ruin  me  forever.  There's 
colonel  Moore,  your  master,  and  major  Pringle,  and  captain 
Knight,  and  a  half  dozen  more,  were  over  here,  it's  only 
yesterday,  and  they  swore  if  I  did  not  leave  off  trading  with 
the  hands,  they'd  pull  my  house  down  about  my  ears,  and 
ride  me  on  a  rail  out  of  the  county  ; — and  now  if  I  were 
caught  helping  you,  by  God,  Archy,  'twould  do  my  busi 
ness  for  me  with  a  witness.  I'm  not  quite  such  a  fool  as 
all  that." 

I  used  tears,  and  flatteries,  and  entreaties.  I  reminded 
Mr  Gordon  how  often  he  had  wished  for  an  opportunity  to 
serve  me  ;  I  told  him  that  all  I  wanted  was  a  few  articles 
of  dress,  and  some  directions  about  the  road  I  ought  to 
follow. 

"  True,  Archy,  by  God  ; — You  saved  my  life,  boy  ; — I 
can't  deny  it ; — and  one  good  turn  deserves  another.  But 
this  business  of  yours  is  a  damned  bad  business,  at  the  best. 
What,  the  devil,  must  you  and  that  wench  be  running  away 


ARCH\    MOORE.  53 

for  ?  I  never  knew  any  mischief  in  my  life,  that  a  woman 
was'nt  at  the  bottom  of  it.  It's  that  damned  tattling  widow 
Hmkley,  that  brought  colonel  Moore  and  the  rest  of  'em 
over  here  yesterday  ; — damn  the  envious  old  jade,  she 
wants  to  drive  me  out  of  the  neighborhood,  and  get  all  the 
custom  for  herself." 

I  knew  that  Mr  Gordon  had  no  turn  for  sentiment,  and 
that  it  would  be  casting  pearls  before  swine's  feet  to  waste 
any  upon  him.  So  I  told  him  it  was  too  late  to  talk  about 
our  reasons  for  running  away, — run  away  we  had, — and  the 
only  thing  now  was,  to  avoid  being  taken. 

"  Ay,  ay,  boy,  I  understand  you.  It's  a  damned  silly 
business,  and  you  begin  to  be  ashamed  of  it  already.  You 
had  better  make  up  your  minds  now  to  go  in,  take  your 
whippings,  and  make  the  best  of  it.  It's  the  loss  of  the 
wench  that  colonel  Moore  is  most  angry  about ;  and  I  dare 
say,  if  you  were  to  go  in,  Archy,  and  make  a  merit  of  tell 
ing  where  he  could  find  her,  you  might  get  off  mighty  easy, 
and  shift  all  the  blame  upon  her  shoulders." 

I  concealed  the  indignation  which  this  base  proposal 
excited.  Such  treachery  to  one  another  is  too  common 
among  slaves,  and  is  always  promoted  and  rewarded  by  the 
masters.  I  could  not  expect  Mr  Gordon  to  rise  very  far 
above  the  level  of  current  morals.  So  I  passed  by  his 
proposal  in  silence.  I  only  said,  that  I  had  made  up  my 
mind  to  undergo  any  thing  rather  than  return  to  Spring- 
Meadow.  If  he  was  resolved  not  to  assist  me,  I  would  be 
off,  as  soon  as  possible,  trusting  to  his  honor,  to  say  nothing 
about  this  visit.  As  a  last  resource,  I  hinted  that  I  had  the 
money  to  pay  for  all  I  wanted,  and  that  I  should  not  dispute 
about  the  price. 

Whether  it  was  this  last  hint,  or  some  more  generous 
motive,  or  the  combined  effect  of  both,  I  shall  not  undertake 
to  determine  ;  but  certain  it  is,  that  Mr  Gordon  began  to 
exhibit  a  more  favorable  disposition. 

"  As  to  money,  Archy,  between  friends  like  us,  there  is 
no  need  of  speaking  about  that.  And  if  you  will  have 
your  own  way,  considering  what  has  happened  between  us, 
'twould  be  mighty  unkind  in  me  not  to  let  you  have  the 
things  you're  wanting.  But  you'll  never  get  off — mind 


54  MEMOIRS     OF 

now  what  I  tell  you — you'll  never  get  off.  Why,  boy,  the 
colonel  swears  he'll  spend  five  thousand  dollars  but  what 
he'll  catch  you.  He's  got  printed  handbills  stuck  up  all 
through  the  country,  with  Five  Hundred  Dollars  Reward, 
at  the  head  of  'em.  Come  into  the  store  here,  and  I'll 
show  you  one.  Five  hundred  dollars  ! — somebody  is  tc 
pocket  that  money,  I  reckon." 

I  did  not  like  the  tone  in  which  this  was  spoken.  The 
emphasis  with  which  Mr  Gordon  dwelt  on  the  five  hundred 
dollars,  was  rather  alarming.  The  idea  of  this  reward  was 
evidently  taking  strong  hold  upon  his  imagination. 

Mr  Gordon's  establishment  consisted  of  but  two  rooms,  of 
which,  one  was  his  parlor,  bed-room  and  kitchen,  and  the 
other  his  store.  All  this  time  we  had  been  in  the  bed-room, 
with  no  light  but  that  of  the  moon.  I  now  followed  him 
into  the  store.  He  struck  a  light,  kindled  a  piece  of  light 
wood,  and  holding  it  up  to  a  large  handbill  posted  opposite 
the  door,  I  read,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  pretty  much 
as  follows ; 

"  FIVE    HUNDRED    DOLLARS    REWARD. 

Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  at  Spring-Meadow,  on 
Saturday  evening  last,  two  servants,  Archy  and  Cassy,  for 
whose  apprehension  the  above  reward  will  be  paid. 

They  are  both  very  light  colored.  Of  the  two,  Cassy  is 
a  shade  the  darker.  Archy  is  about  twenty-one  years  of 
age,  five  feet  eleven  inches  high,  and  a  stout  muscular 
frame.  He  has  a  firm  erect  walk,  and  is  a  very  likely 
fellow.  Smiles  when  spoken  to.  His  hair  is  a  light  brown, 
and  curls  over  his  head  ;  he  has  blue  eyes  and  a  high  fore 
head.  Said  boy  was  raised  in  my  family,  and  has  always 
been  kindly  treated.  It  is  not  known  what  clothes  he 
wore  away. 

Cassy  is  about  eighteen,  five  feet  three  inches,  or  there 
abouts,  and  a  handsome  face  and  figure.  She  has  long 
dark  hair,  and  a  bright  black  eye.  When  she  smiles  there 
is  a  dimple  in  her  left  cheek.  She  has  a  good  voice,  and 
can  sing  several  songs.  No  other  marks  particularly  recol 
lected,  except  a  mole  on  her  right  breast.  She  has  been 
raised  a  lady's  maid,  and  she  took  a  variety  of  good  cloth- 


ARCHY   MOORE.  55 

ing  with  her.     Said  slaves  have  gone  off  in  company  as  is 
supposed. 

Whoever  will  return  them  to  me,  or  lodge  them  in  any 
jail,  so  that  I  can  get  them,  shall  be  paid  the  above 
reward ;  or  one  half  for  either  separately. 

CHARLES  MOORE. 

N.  B.  I  suspect  they  have  taken  the  road  to  Baltimore, 
as  Gassy  formerly  lived  in  that  city.  No  doubt  they  will 
attempt  to  pass  for  white  people." 

While  I  was  reading  this  advertisement,  Mr  Gordon 
looked  over  my  shoulder,  and  added  his  comments  upon 
each  sentence  of  it.  Neither  his  remarks,  nor  the  adver 
tisement  itself,  were  calculated  to  make  me  feel  very  com 
fortably.  Perhaps  Mr  Gordon  observed  it ;  for  he  handed 
me  a  glass  of  whiskey,  and  bade  me  keep  up  my  spirits. 
He  swallowed  one  himself;  and  drank  to  my  escape.  This 
reassured  me  a  little, — for  to  tell  the  truth,  I  was  a  good 
deal  startled  at  Mr  Gordon's  very  evident  hankering  after 
the  five  hundred  dollars.  The  whiskey  he  drank, — and  he 
was  not  content  with  a  single  glass, — seemed  to  rekindle 
his  gratitude.  He  swore  he  would  run  any  risk  to  serve 
me,  and  told  me  to  pick  out  such  articles  as  I  wanted. 

I  fitted  myself  with  hat  and  shoes,  and  selected  the  same 
for  Gassy.  But  it  was  necessary  to  have  a  man's  dress  for 
her.  Mr  Gordon  did  not  deal  in  ready  made  clothing,  but 
he  had  some  cloth,  which  I  thought,  would  answer  OUT 
purpose  ;  and  he  undertook  to  get  the  suit  made  up  for  me. 
I  gave  him  the  measure  by  guess,  and  was  to  return  in 
three  days,  by  which  time  he  promised  to  have  the  clothes 
finished.  I  had  much  rather  have  completed  the  business 
at  once,  and  have  started  directly  on  our  journey  ;  but 
that  was  impossible.  A  disguise  for  Gassy  was  absolutely 
necessary ;  it  would  have  been  foolish  to  have  attempted 
an  escape  without  it.  I  pressed  him  to  be  sure  and  have 
the  clothes  finished,  at  the  time  appointed  ;  for  a  reward  of 
five  hundred  dollars,  and  the  chance  of  making  friends  with 
colonel  Moore,  and  rising  in  the  world  by  his  assistance, 
was  a  temptation  to  which  I  wished  to  keep  Mr  Gordon 
exposed,  for  as  short  a  time  as  possible.  I  now  inquired 


56  MEMOIRS    OF 

what  I  had  to  pay  for  my  various  purchases.  Mr  Gordon 
took  his  slate  and  began  to  figure  it  up.  He  proceeded 
very  diligently  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  suddenly  came 
to  a  full  stop.  He  looked  at  the  goods  1  had  selected, 
and  then  at  the  slate.  For  a  moment  he  hesitated  ;  then 
looking  at  me,  "  Archy,"  he  said,  "  you  saved  my  life, — 
you're  welcome  to  them  'ere  things,  by  God." 

I  knew  well  how  to  value  this  instance  of  generosity. 
Whatever  money  Mr  Gordon  got,  was  pretty  sure  to  go  in 
gambling  and  dissipation.  Of  course  he  was  not  only  poor, 
but  often  distressed  and  tormented  to  get  the  means  of 
indulging  his  propensities.  Money  was  to  him,  what  whis 
key  is  to  the  lips  of  the  drunkard.  For  such  a  person  to 
be  generous,  is  hard  indeed  ;  and  I  ceased  at  once,  to 
distrust  a  man,  who  gave  so  substantial  a  proof  of  his 
inclination  to  assist  me.  I  bade  him  good  night,  and  set 
out  on  my  return  home,  with  a  heart  much  lightened. 

Mr  Gordon  put  me  some  questions  about  the  place  of 
my  retreat,  to  which  however  I  thought  it  best  to  return  a 
somewhat  equivocal  reply.  Though  greatly  reassured,  I 
still  could  see  no  good  purpose  to  be  answered  by  too  great 
confidence  ;  and  at  setting  out  from  Mr  Gordon's,  I  was 
careful  to  take  a  direction  quite  wide  of  the  true  one. 
Once  or  twice,  I  thought  I  was  followed.  The  moon  was 
now  setting,  and  her  light  was  scanty  and  uncertain.  My 
path  led  through  a  scattered  growth  of  stunted  trees  and 
bushes.  A  pursuer  might  easily  have  concealed  himself ; 
but  when  I  stopped  to  listen,  all  was  silent ;  and  I  soon 
dismissed  my  fanciful  fears. 

Taking  a  considerable  circuit,  I  struck  into  the  direction 
of  the  deserted  plantation,  and  arrived  there  about  day 
break.  Gassy  came  out  to  meet  me.  It  was  the  firsi 
time  we  had  been  so  long  separated  since  our  escape  from 
Spring-Meadow.  I  felt  as  overjoyed  to  see  her,  as  if  I  had 
returned  after  a  year's  absence  ;  and  the  eagerness  with 
which  she  flew  into  my  arms,  and  pressed  me  again  and 
again  to  her  bosom,  satisfied  me  that  I  was  not  alone  in  the 
feeling.  We  spent  the  three  days  in  making  preparations, 
starting  and  answering  difficulties,  and  sometimes  in  pleasing 
ourselves  with  anticipations  of  future  happiness. 


ARCHY   MOORE.  57 

At  the  appointed  time  1  set  off  for  Mr  Gordon's.  I 
approached  the  house,  not  trembling  and  hesitating  as 
before,  but  with  the  confident  step  with  which  one  hastens 
to  the  dwelling  of  a  tried  friend.  I  knocked.  In  a  moment 
Mr  Gordon  opened  the  door ;  he  caught  me  by  the  arm, 
and  would  have  drawn  me  into  the  house ;  but  the  door 
half  opened  enabled  me  to  discover  that  there  were  others 
there,  beside  himself. 

I  snatched  myself  from  his  grasp,  and  starting  back,  I 
said  in  a  whisper,  "  Good  God !  Mr  Gordon,  who  have  you 
in  the  house  ?  " 

He  returned  me  no  answer ;  but  almost  while  I  spoke,  I 
heard  Stubbs's  grum  voice  growling,  "  Seize  him,  seize  him ;" 
— and  that  moment  I  knew  I  was  betrayed.  I  ran  ;  bui 
very  soon  I  felt  somebody  grasping  at  my  shoulder.  Luckily 
I  had  a  thick  stout  stick  in  my  hand,  and  turning  short 
about,  with  one  blow  I  struck  my  pursuer  to  the  ground. 
It  was  the  traitor  Gordon.  I  was  tempted  to  stop  and 
renew  the  blow,  but  that  moment,  a  pistol  ball  whizzed  by 
my  head,  and  looking  round,  I  saw  Stubbs  and  another  man, 
with  pistols  in  their  hands,  close  upon  me.  There  was  no 
time  to  lose.  I  sprang  forward,  and  ran  for  my  life.  Two 
or  three  shots  were  fired  in  quick  succession,  but  without 
effect ;  and  presently  I  reached  a  thicket,  where  I  felt 
myself  more  safe.  It  was  soon  evident  that  I  was  much 
the  fleetest  of  the  party  ;  for  before  long,  I  was  out  of  sight 
and  hearing  of  my  pursuers.  I  kept  on  for  near  half  an 
hour  ;  when,  almost  exhausted,  I  sunk  upon  the  ground,  and 
strove  to  recover  my  breath  and  to  collect  my  thoughts. 
There  was  no  moon ;  the  starlight  was  obscured  by  a  thin 
mist ;  and  I  did  not  well  know  where  I  was.  Having  deter 
mined,  as  well  as  I  was  able,  the  probable  direction  of  the 
deserted  plantation,  I  again  set  forward.  In  the  race,  I  had 
sprained  one  of  my  ankles.  This  I  had  scarcely  observed, 
at  the  moment ;  but  it  now  became  painful,  and  I  moved 
with  difficulty.  However,  I  kept  on  the  best  I  could,  and 
flattered  myself  with  the  hope  of  getting  back  before  day 
light.  I  passed,  for  a  considerable  distance,  through  fields 
and  thickets,  with  which  I  was  not  acquainted ;  but 
presently,  I  reached  a  brook  which  I  knew.  I  quenched 


58  MEMOIRS    OF 

my  thirst,  and  pushed  forward  with  greater  alacrity.  I  was 
still  five  or  six  miles  from  the  deserted  plantation,  and  was 
obliged  to  take  a  very  circuitous  route.  I  kept  on  as  fast 
as  I  was  ahle ;  but  the  sun  was  up  some  hours,  before  I 
arrived  at  the  spring.  Cassy  was  anxiously  watching  for 
me.  She  had  become  exceedingly  alarmed  at  my  delay  ; 
nor  did  the  disorder  of  my  dress,  and  my  appearance  of 
hurry  and  fatigue  tend  to  reassure  her. 

I  hastened  towards  the  spring,  and  was  stooping  to  drink, 
when  Cassy  gave  a  loud  shriek.  I  looked  up,  and  saw  two 
or  three  men  rushing  down  the  side  of  the  hollow.  I 
sprang  upon  my  feet;  but  immediately  felt  myself  seized 
from  behind.  Two  other  men  had  rushed  down  the  hollow, 
upon  the  other  side,  and  while  I  was  preparing  to  give  bat 
tle  to  those  I  had  first  seen,  before  I  was  aware  of  my 
danger,  I  found  myself  in  the  grasp  of  their  confederates. 


CHAPTER  X. 

I  LEARNED  afterwards,  that  when  Mr  Stubbs  and  his 
companions,  who  were  waiting  for  me  at  Gordon's,  had 
failed  to  bring  me  down  with  their  pistols,  discovering  that 
I  ran  too  fast  for  them,  they  soon  gave  over  the  chase  and 
returned  to  the  store.  They  sent  off  immediately  for  assist 
ance;  and  were  presently  joined  by  two  men,  and  what 
was  of  more  importance,  by  a  dog,  named  Jowler,  and 
celebrated  throughout  the  county  for  his  skill  in  tracking  out 
runaways. 

Jowler  had  no  sooner  arrived,  than  they  tied  a  string 
about  his  neck,  the  other  end  of  which,  one  of  the  party 
held  in  his  hand.  The  dog  was  then  put  upon  my  trail,  and 
trotted  slowly  forward  with  his  nose  to  the  ground,  followed 
by  Mr  Stubbs  and  the  rest  of  the  party.  All  the  latter 
part  of  the  way,  I  had  walked  quite  slowly,  and  Jowler, 
and  his  company  had  gained  so  fast  upon  me,  that  they 
reached  the  spring  almost  as  soon  as  I  did.  Having  dis 
covered  my  retreat,  they  resolved  to  make  every  thing 


ARCHY    MOORE.  59 

certain ;  and  dividing  into  two  parties,  they  rushed  down 
both  sides  of  the  hollow  at  the  same  time,  and  secured  me 
in  the  manner  I  have  related. 

Poor  Gassy  was  seized  at  the  same  instant ;  and  almost 
before  we  knew  what  had  happened,  we  found  our  hands 
tied,  and  ourselves  connected  by  a  stout  chain,  the  ends  of 
which  were  made  fast  about  our  necks.  This  was  sad 
business  for  Gassy ;  and  the  poor  girl,  when  she  felt  the 
iron  around  her  neck,  wept  bitterly.  I  do  not  believe  the 
chain  was  drawn  much  tighter  than  was  necessary  ;  yet 
when  I  saw  the  tears  of  my  poor  wife,  I  could  not  help 
feeling  a  choking  sensation  about  my  throat.  What  aggra 
vated  my  distress  and  my  indignation,  was  the  brutal  jests 
of  our  captors.  It  was  well  my  hands  were  fast,  for  had 
they  been  free,  I  verily  believe  I  should  have  found  the 
means  to  finish  one  or  another  of  the  scoundrels.  Mr  Gor 
don  was  one  of  the  party.  His  head  was  bound  up  in  a 
bloody  handkerchief;  but  instead  of  joining  in  the  jests  of 
his  companions,  he  tried  to  keep  them  from  vexing  and  in 
sulting  us. 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  Stubbs,  you  damned  infernal  black 
guard,  let  that  gal  Gassy  be.  Ain't  it  I  who've  taken 
them  ?  Ain't  it  I  who  am  to  have  the  reward  ?  Let  them 
be  I  say ;  I  tell  you  they  are  under  my  protection." 

"A  damned  fine  sort  of  protector  they've  found  in  you," 
answered  Stubbs,  with  a  loud  laugh,  in  which  he  was 
joined  by  his  companions, — "  No  question,  they're  mightily 
obliged  to  you.  The  devil  take  your  nonsense  and  your 
self  into  the  bargain ;  I'll  say  what  I  please  to  the  gal,  and 
do  what  I  please  too.  Ain't  I  the  overseer?" — and  here 
he  broke  out  with  a  fresh  string  of  ribaldry,  addressed  to 
poor  Gassy. 

It  was  only  by  a  promise  to  treat  his  companions  to  a 
quart  of  whiskey,  that  Mr  Gordon  could  prevail  on  them  to 
let  us  alone.  The  word  '  whiskey  *  worked  like  a  charm, 
and  by  the  influence  of  it,  he  persuaded  the  others  to  drop 
a  little  behind,  and  to  give  him  a  chance,  as  he  expressed 
it,  to  have  some  private  conversation  with  me.  He  had  no 
objection  to  their  hearing  what  he  said  to  me,  but  he  did 
not  want  to  be  interrupted  by  their  "  damned  clatter." 


60  MEMOIRS    OF 

I  was  a  good  deal  surprised  at  all  this.  Mr  Gordon  had 
betrayed  me  ; — and  after  doing  me  so  base  and  irreparable 
an  injury,  what  could  he  mean  by  these  little  marks  of  good 
will  ?  Mr  Gordon  was,  as  I  have  described  him,  a  good 
matured  fellow.  He  had  not  been  able  to  resist  the  tempta 
tion  of  five  hundred  dollars,  and  all  the  other  advantages, 
which  he  expected  to  gain  by  betraying  me  ; — but  for  all 
that,  he  had  not  forgotten  that  I  had  saved  his  life.  He 
walked  up  beside  me,  and  stammering  and  hesitating,  he 
attempted  to  enter  into  conversation. 

"  That  was  a  damned  hard  blow  you  struck  me,  Archy," 
he  began. 

"  I  am  sorry  it  was  not  harder,"  was  my  answer. 

"  Come,  come  now,  don't  be  in  such  a  devilish  savage 
humor.  Why,  boy,  I  thought  I  might  as  well  get  the  five 
hundred  dollars,  as  to  let  it  slip  through  my  fingers,  and  all 
for  nothing  too.  I  knew  right  well,  you  were  sure  to  be 
taken, — and  for  all  you  pout  so  about  it,  I've  made  better 
terms  for  you,  than  any  body  else  would  have  done.  Come, 
boy,  cheer  up,  and  I'll  tell  you  how  it  all  was.  You  see, 
when  you  left  me  t'other  night,  I  could  not  sleep  a  wink 
for  thinking.  Says  I  to  myself,  that's  a  damned  foolish 
project  of  Archy's.  He  is  sure  to  be  caught ;  and  then  it 
will  be  coming  out  as  how  I  helped  him,  and  then  there 
will  be  the  devil  and  all  to  pay.  He'll  be  whipped,  and 
I'll  be  fined  and  sent  to  jail,  and  for  any  thing  I  know, 
ridden  on  a  rail  out  of  the  county,  as  colonel  Moore  and 
them  others  threatened  me ;  and  then, — to  make  a  bad 
matter  worse, — somebody  else  will  get  the  reward.  Now 
that  boy  Archy,  said  I,  saved  my  life — there's  no  denying 
that,  any  how, — and  if  I  can  save  him  a  whipping,  and  at 
the  same  time,  put  five  hundred  dollars  into  my  pocket,  it 
will  be  a  mighty  pretty  business  for  both  of  us. 

"  So  the  next  morning,  I  got  up  early  and  started  off  for 
colonel  Moore's ;  and  a  mighty  fluster  I  found  the  colonel 
in,  to  be  sure, — for  he  could  hear  no  news  of  you  nowhere. 
So  says  I,  colonel,  says  I,  I  hear  as  how  you've  offered 
five  hundred  dollars  reward  to  any  body  that'll  catch  them 
'ere  runaways  of  yours.  Yes,  says  the  colonel,  cash  down  ; 
— and  he  looked  me  in  the  face,  as  though  he  thought  I 
knew  where  to  find  you. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  61 

c< Just  so,  colonel,  says  I; — and  perhaps  I  might, — if 
you'll  promise  me  something  in  the  first  place. 

"  Promise  you  something,  said  the  colonel ; — haven't  I 
promised  five  hundred  dollars  already! — what  is  it  you 
mean  ? 

"Says  I,  colonel,  it  isn't  the  reward  I  was  thinking 
about, — the  reward  is  handsome — a  very  pretty  reward 
surely.  Pay  me  four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  colonel, 
and  promise  me  not  to  whip  Archy,  when  you  get  him, 
and  I'll  not  ask  for  the  other  fifty. 

"  Pshaw,  nonsense,  says  the  colonel.  Pray  Mr  Gordon, 
what  is  it  to  you  how  much  I  whip  the  scoundrel,  provided 
you  get  your  money  ? 

"  Says  I,  colonel,  Jemmy  Gordon  isn't  the  chap  to  for 
get  a  favor.  That  boy  Archy,  saved  my  life,  it's  three 
years  ago,  this  very  month ;  and  if  you'll  promise  me  upon 
your  honor,  not  to  punish  him  for  running  away,  I  will  un 
dertake  to  hunt  him  up  for  you  ; — and  not  otherwise. 

"  The  colonel  higgled  and  haggled  a  good  deal ; — but 
when  he  found  he  couldn't  get  round  me  no  how, — he 
promised  all  I  had  asked  him.  So  I  told  him  how  you  had 
been  at  my  house,  and  how  you  were  coming  again ;  and 
he  sent  Stubbs  and  them  other  fellows  to  help  me  take 
you, — and  that's  the  long  and  the  short  of  the  whole  mat 
ter.  So  don't  be  sulky  Archy,  but  cheer  up  and  take  it 
kindly.  You  see,  I  meant  to  do  what  was  best  for  us  both." 

"  I  wish  you  much  joy,  Mr  Gordon  of  your  part  of  the 
bargain ;  and  may  you  lose  your  five  hundred  dollars,  the 
next  time  you  play  cards,  and  that  will  be  before  you  are 
twelve  hours  older." 

"  You're  in  a  passion,  Archy,  or  you  wouldn't  talk  in 
that  way.  Well,  boy,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  don't  much 
wonder  at  it.  But  by  and  by,  you'll  think  better  of  it. 
I  should  think  you  might  be  content  with  having  broken 
my  head  ; — by  God,  Archy,  but  it  aches  as  though  it  would 
split."  So  saying,  Mr  Gordon  broke  off  the  conversation 
and  joined  his  companions. 

Little  reason  as  I  have  to  speak  well  of  him,  I  am  bold 
to  say  there  are  a  great  many  men  in  the  world,  not  much 
better  than  Jemmy  Gordon.  Five  hundred  dollars  was  a 
6 


055  MEMOIRS     OF 

great  temptation  to  him.  Besides,  he  hoped  to  secure  the 
good  graces  of  colonel  Moore,  and  expected  by  his  assist 
ance,  to  get  into  the  way  of  gaining  a  living  respectably ; 
— at  least,  as  respectably  as  any  poor  man  can,  in  that 
country.  He  not  only  quieted  his  conscience  with  the  idea 
that,  if  he  did  not  betray  me,  somebody  else  would, — but 
he  had  made  terms  with  colonel  Moore,  for  my  benefit ; 
and  actually  seemed  to  have  flattered  himself  into  the  no 
tion,  that  he  was  doing  me  a  favor  by  betraying  me. 

There  is  many  a  gentleman  in  slave-holding  America,, 
— for  anti-republican  as  it  may  seem,  in  no  part  of  the 
world  is  the  distinction  between  gentlemen  and  the  common 
people,  more  distinctly  marked, — who  would  consider  it  an 
insult  to  be  compared  with  Jemmy  Gordon,  but  whose 
whole  life  is  a  continued  practice  of  the  very  principles 
upon  which  that  man  acted,  when  he  made  up  his  mind  to 
play  the  traitor.  Many  is  the  gentleman  in  slave-holding 
America,  who  knows  full  well, — and  in  the  secret  recesses 
of  his  own  soul,  most  unequivocally  acknowledges, — that 
to  keep  his  fellow  men  in  bondage,  is  a  gross,  flagrant,  high 
handed  violation  of  the  first  and  clearest  principles  of  jus 
tice  and  equity, — a  practice,  abstractly  considered,  fully 
more  criminal  than  piracy  or  highway  robbery.  Slavery, 
in  the  abstract,  he  acknowledges  to  himself  and  to  others, 
to  be  totally  indefensible.  But  then  his  slaves  are  his 
estate, — and  he  cannot  live,  like  a  gentleman,  without 
them.  Besides,  he  treats  his  servants  particularly  well,: — 
so  very  well,  that  he  does  not  hesitate  to  argue  that  they 
are  much  happier  as  slaves,  than  freedom  under  any  form, 
could  possibly  make  them  ! 

When  men  of  sense  and  education,  can  satisfy  them 
selves  with  such  wretched  sophistry  as  this,  let  us  learn  to 
have  some  charity  for  poor  Jemmy  Gordon. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

IT  was  past  noon  before  we  arrived  at  Spring-Meadow, 
where  colonel  Moore  had  been,  for  some  time,  impatiently 


ARCHY    MOORE.  63 

expecting  us.  But  as  he  happened  to  have  a  large  party 
to  dine  with  him,  he  was  too  busy  in  entertaining  his  com 
pany,  to  pay  any  immediate  attention  to  us.  Yet,  no 
sooner  had  he  received  notice  of  our  arrival,  than  he  sent 
out  Mr  Gordon's  five  hundred  dollars.  It  was  a  large  roll 
of  bank  notes ;  the  fellow's  eye  kindled  up  at  the  sight  of 
it,  and  he  snatched  it  eagerly.  I  was  looking  steadily  at 
him,  and  his  eyes  met  mine.  The  change  was  sudden. 
He  blushed  and  grew  pale  by  turns  ; — shame,  remorse  and 
self-contempt  were  painted  in  his  face.  He  thrust  the 
money  hastily  into  his  pocket,  and  walked  away  without 
speaking  a  word. 

Gassy  and  myself  were  driven  to  the  stables,  and  locked 
up  in  a  close,  narrow,  dark  room,  which  served  sometimes 
as  a  corn-crib,  and  sometimes,  as  a  sort  of  dungeon  for 
refractory  slaves.  We  sat  down  upon  the  floor — for  there 
was  nothing  else  to  sit  upon — and  poor  Gassy  sunk  into  my 
arms.  Her  grief  and  terror  seemed  to  burst  out  afresh,  and 
she  wept  bitterly.  I  kissed  away  her  tears,  and  tried  to 
console  her.  But  she  would  not  be  comforted  ;  and  little 
indeed,  was  the  comfort  I  had  to  offer.  The  more  I  said 
to  her,  the  more  she  wept;  and  she  clung  to  me  closer  and 
closer,  till  her  embrace  became  almost  convulsive.  "  He 
will  kill  us — He  will  separate  us  forever,"  she  murmured, 
in  a  low,  inarticulate  voice ;  and  it  was  the  only  reply  she 
made  to  all  I  could  say  to  her. 

Our  situation  was  indeed  pitiable.  Had  we  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  an  ordinary  pirate  or  robber,  there  might  have 
been  some  room  for  hope.  The  consciousness  of  his  own 
violence,  might  perhaps  alarm  him  ;  the  fear  of  avenging 
justice  might  stay  his  hand.  At  the  worst,  death,  and  that 
too  a  speedy  and  an  easy  one,  would  be  the  farthest  limit 
of  his  malice.  But  we — unhappy  creatures — could  flatter 
ourselves  with  no  such  prospect.  We  were  runaway 
slaves,  who  had  fallen  again  into  the  hands  of  their  master; 
— a  master,  whom  the  very  recollection  that  he  owned  us, 
inspired  with  rage  at  our  insolence,  in  daring  to  run  away 
from  him  ;  and  who  knew  well,  that  both  the  law  and 
public  opinion  would  amply  justify  him  in  the  infliction  of 
any  tortures  not  likely  to  result  in  immediate  death. 


64  ML.MC    RS    OF 

It  is  true  that  we  had  flet  from  the  greatest  outrage  that 
can  be  inflicted  upon  a  wife  ind  a  husband.  But  that  was 
no  excuse, — not  even  the  /tightest  palliation.  Slaves  are 
not  permitted  to  fly  at  al>  It  is  their  duty^ — alas !  that 
such  a  word  should  be  so  ]  restituted ! — to  submit  without  a 
murmur,  to  all  the  insults  outrages  and  oppression  of  their 
masters. 

I  clasped  my  wife  to  my  bosom,  with  almost  the  same 
trembling  earnestness,  with  which  she  clung  to  me.  I 
felt,  as  she  did,  that  it  was  the  last  time ; — and  this  idea 
sunk  into  my  heart  with  a  bitterness,  which  all  my  late 
ecstasies  served  only  to  aggravate.  I  almost  stifled  her 
with  eager  kisses  ; — but  the  fever  that  glowed  in  her  cheek 
was  not  the  flush  of  pleasure  ;  and  those  deep  sighs  she 
heaved, — they  could  not  be  mistaken  for  the  pantings  of 
delight.  The  speedy  separation  that  threatened  us,  was 
not  only  terrible  in  anticipation,  but  it  seemed  to  destroy  all 
our  capacity  for  present  enjoyment.  But  for  that,  with 
Cassy  in  my  arms,  what  should  I  have  cared  for  chains  and 
a  dungeon  ! — Dreading  that,  her  lips  lost  all  their  sweet 
ness,  her  bosom  was  an  uneasy  pillow,  and  though  I  could 
not  leave  her,  every  embrace  seemed  to  increase  both  her 
distress  and  mine. 

We  passed  several  hours  in  this  way.  without  any  inter 
ruption.  We  had  not  tasted  food  that  day, — and  nobody 
brought  us  even  a  cup  of  cold  water.  The  heat  and  close 
ness  of  the  room,  into  which  the  air  had* no  admission, 
aggravated  the  fever  in  our  blood,  and  made  our  thirst 
almost  intolerable.  How  I  longed  for  the  cool  spring,  the 
balmy  air,  the  freedom,  we  had  lost ! 

Toward  evening,  we  heard  somebody  approaching  ;  and 
I  soon  recognized  the  voices  of  colonel  Moore  and  his 
overseer.  They  opened  the  door,  and  bade  us  come  out. 
At  first,  the  light  dazzled  my  eyes  so  that  I  could  scarcely 
distinguish  one  object  from  another ;  but  in  a  little  while  I 
was  enabled  to  see  that  our  visitors  were  accompanied  by 
Peter,  a  tall  fellow,  with  a  very  suspicious  smile,  the  spy 
and  tell-tale  of  the  place,  the  detestation  of  all  the  servants, 
but  the  especial  favorite  of  Mr  Stubbs,  and  his  regular 
assistant  on  all  occasions. 


ARCHY    MOORE  65 

Colonel  Moore's  face  was  a  good  deal  flushed,  and  I 
judged  that  he  had  been  drinking.  This  was  a  practice 
very  unusual  with  him.  For  though  every  dinner  at  his 
house,  was  pretty  sure  to  end  by  putting  the  greater  part 
of  the  guests  upon  the  floor,  colonel  Moore  generally  passed 
the  bottle,  under  the  plea  that  his  physician  had  forbidden 
its  use,  and  commonly  rose  up  the  only  sober  man,  from  his 
own  table.  It  was  too  plain,  that  on  the  present  occasion, 
he  had  forgotten  his  accustomed  sobriety.  He  spoke  not  a 
word  to  me,  and  I  found  it  impossible  to  catch  his  eye  ;  but 
turning  to  his  overseer,  he  said,  in  an  under  tone,  and  with 
the  air  of  being  a  good  deal  irritated — "  It  was  a  damned 
blunder,  Mr  Stubbs,  to  shut  them  up  together.  I  thought 
you  understood  my  orders  better." 

The  overseer  mumbled  out  some  unintelligible  apology, 
of  which  colonel  Moore  took  no  notice ;  and  without  further 
preface  or  explanation,  he  ordered  Mr  Stubbs  to  tie  me  up. 

The  padlock  by  which  the  chain  was  fastened  about  my 
neck  was  undone.  They  stripped  me  almost  naked.  Mr 
Stubbs  produced  a  piece  of  rope  with  one  end  of  which  he 
bound  my  hands,  and  the  other  end,  he  made  fast,  with 
Peter's  assistance,  to  a  beam  over  my  head ; — not  however, 
till  he  had  drawn  it  so  tight  as  almost  to  lift  me  from  the 
floor. 

Colonel  Moore  then  ordered  them  to  free  Cassy  from  the 
chain.  He  put  a  heavy  whip  into  her  hand,  and  pointing 
to  me,  "  Take  care  my  girl,"  he  said,  "  that  you  lay  it  on 
to  some  purpose." 

Poor  Cassy  looked  about  in  utter  amazement.  She  did 
not  understand  him  ;  she  had  no  idea  of  such  refined  cruel 
ty,  such  ferocious  revenge. 

He  repeated  his  commands,  with  a  tone  and  a  look  that 
were  frightful.  "  If  you  wish  to  save  your  own  carcass, 
see  that  you  bring  blood  at  every  blow.  I'll  teach  you — 
both  of  you — to  trifle  with  me." 

She  now  comprehended  his  brutal  purpose  ; — and  giving 
one  look  of  mingled  horror  and  despair,  sunk  senseless  to 
the  ground.  Peter  was  sent  for  water.  He  dashed  it  in 
her  face,  and  she  soon  revived.  They  placed  her  on  her 
feet,  and  colonel  Moore  again  put  the  whip  into  her  hand 
and  repeated  his  orders. 


66  MEMOIRS    OP 

She  threw  it  down,  as  if  the  touch  had  stung  her ;  and 
looking  him  full  in  the  face,  the  tears,  all  the  while,  streaming 
from  her  eyes,  she  said  in  a  tone  firm,  but  full  of  entreaty, 
"  Master,  he  is  my  husband!" 

That  word  husband,  seemed  to  kindle  colonel  Moore  into 
a  new  fury,  which  totally  destroyed  his  self-cornrnand.  He 
struck  Gassy  to  the  ground  with  his  fists,  trampled  on  her 
with  his  feet,  and  snatching  up  the  whip  which  she  had 
thrown  down,  he  laid  it  upon  me  with  such  violence,  that 
the  lash  penetrated  my  flesh  at  every  blow,  and  the  blood 
ran  trickling  down  my  legs  and  stood  in  little  puddles  at 
my  feet.  The  torture  was  too  great  for  human  endurance ; 
I  screamed  with  agony.  "  Pshaw,"  said  my  executioner, 
"  his  noise  will  disturb  the  House ; " — and  drawing  a  hand 
kerchief  from  his  pocket,  he  thrust  it  into  my  mouth,  and 
rammed  it  down  my  throat  with  the  butt-end  of  his  whip- 
handle.  Having  thus  effectually  gagged  me,  he  renewed 
his  lashes.  How  long  they  were  continued  I  do  not  know ; 
a  cloud  began  to  swim  before  my  eyes  ;  my  head  grew 
dizzy  and  confused ;  and  a  fortunate  fainting-fit  soon  put 
me  beyond  the  reach  of  torture. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHEN  I  recovered  my  senses,  I  found  myself  stretched 
upon  a  wretched  pallet,  which  lay  upon  the  floor,  in  one 
corner  of  a  little,  old,  and  ruinous  hoveL  I  was  very  weak 
and  hardly  able  to  move  ;  and  I  afterwards  learned  that  I 
had  just  passed  through  the  paroxysm  of  a  fever.  A  deaf 
old  woman,  too  much  superannuated  to  be  fit  for  any  thing 
but  a  nurse,  was  my  only  companion.  I  recognized  the  old 
lady,  and  forgetting  that  she  could  not  hear  me,  I  put  her  a 
thousand  questions  in  a  breath.  I  dreaded,  yet  I  wished  to 
learn  the  fate  of  poor  Gassy  ;  and  it  was  to  her  that  most 
of  my  questions  related.  But  to  all  my  inquiries  the  old 
woman  returned  no  answer.  I  might  scream  myself  deaf, 
she  said,  and  she  could  not  hear  a  word.  Besides,  she  told 
me,  I  was  too  sick  and  weak  to  talk. 


ARCHY   MOORE.  67 

T  was  not  to  be  silenced  in  that  way,  and  only  bawled 
the  louder,  and  added  signs  and  gestures,  to  enable  the  old 
woman  to  understand  me.  But  it  was  plain  that  aunt  Judy 
had  no  intention  to  gratify  my  curiosity  ;  for  when  she 
found  she  could  not  quiet  me,  she  went  out  and  locking  the 
door  after  her,  left  me  to  my  own  meditations.  These 
were  not  very  agreeable.  As  yet  however,  my  thoughts 
were  so  confused,  and  my  head  so  dizzy,  that  I  could 
scarcely  be  said  to  reflect  at  all. 

I  learned  afterwards,  that  it  was  more  than  a  week,  that 
I  had  remained  delirious,  the  effect  of  the  violent  fever  into 
which  I  had  been  thrown,  and  which  threatened  a  speedy 
termination  to  my  miserable  existence.  But  the  crisis  was 
now  past.  My  youth  and  the  vigor  of  my  constitution 
had  carried  me  through  it,  and  had  preserved  me  for  new 
sufferings. 

I  recovered  rapidly,  and  was  soon  able  to  walk  about. 
Lest  I  should  make  an  undue  use  of  my  returning  strength, 
and  attempt  another  escape,  I  was  presently  accommodated 
with  fetters  and  handcuffs.  My  fetters  were  taken  off  once 
a  day,  for  about  an  hour,  and  under  Peter's  supervision,  I 
was  allowed  to  breathe  the  fresh  air,  and  to  take  a  short 
walk  about  the  plantation.  It  was  in  vain  that  I  attempted 
to  get  from  Peter  any  information  concerning  my  wife.  He 
could  not,  or  he  would  not  tell  me  any  thing  about  her. 

I  thought  that  perhaps  he  might  sell  the  information 
which  he  refused  to  give ;  and  I  promised  to  make  him  a 
present  of  some  clothes,  if  he  would  allow  me  to  visit  my 
former  house.  We  went  together.  This  house,  1  had 
been  enabled,  in  anticipation  of  my  marriage,  and  through 
the  bounty  of  Mrs  Moore  and  her  daughter,  to  fit  up  quite 
comfortably.  It  was  furnished  with  a  variety  of  things, 
seldom  seen  in  a  slave's  cabin.  But  I  found  it  stripped 
and  plundered  ;  every  article  of  furniture  was  gone,  and 
my  chest  was  broken  open  and  all  my  clothes  taken  away. 
For  this  I  was  no  doubt  indebted  to  my  fellow  servants. 
The  strongest,  or  almost  the  strongest  impulse  of  the  human 
mind,  is  the  desire  of  acquisition.  This  passion,  the  slave 
can  only  gratify  by  plunder.  Besides,  such  is  the  baneful 
effect  of  slavery,  that  it  almost  destroys  the  very  germ  of 


68  MEMOIRS    OF 

virtue.  If  oppression  makes  the  wise  man  mad,  it  too  often 
makes  the  honest  man  a  villain.  It  embitters  the  feelings, 
and  hardens  and  brutifies  the  heart.  He  who  finds  himself 
plundered  from  his  birth,  of  his  liberty  and  his  labor — his 
only  inheritance — becomes  selfish,  reckless,  and  regardless 
of  every  thing  save  the  immediate  gratification  of  the 
present  moment.  Plundered  of  every  thing  himself,  he  is 
ready  to  plunder  in  his  turn,  even  his  brothers  in  mis 
fortune. 

Finding  my  house  stripped,  and  my  clothes  stolen,  it  put 
me  in  mind  to  feel  in  my  pockets,  for  my  money.  That 
was  gone  too.  Indeed  I  soon  recollected,  that  when  sur 
prised  and  seized  by  Mr  Gordon  and  his  assistants,  Mr 
Stubbs  had  searched  my  pockets,  and  transferred  their  con 
tents  to  his  own.  This,  of  course,  was  the  last  that  I 
expected  to  see  of  my  money.  According  to  the  Virginian 
code  of  morals,  Mr  Stubbs  was  a  very  respectable  man, 
who  did  what  was  perfectly  proper.  Certainly,  it  was 
highly  dangerous  to  trust  a  rogue  and  a  runaway  with  the 
possession  of  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  But  according 
to  the  same  code,  the  servants  who  had  stolen  my  clothes, 
were  a  set  of  outrageous  thieves,  who  richly  deserved  a 
whipping.  So  Mr  Stubbs  declared,  whom  we  happened  to 
meet,  as  we  were  returning,  and  to  whom  I  complained  that 
my  house  had  been  plundered.  That  honest  gentleman 
worked  himself  quite  into  a  passion,  and  swore  roundly  that 
if  he  could  catch  the  thieves  he  would  make  them  smart  for 
it.  Notwithstanding  this  outburst  of  virtuous  indignation, 
Mr  Stubbs  said  nothing  about  returning  my  money,  and  I 
judged  it  safest  not  to  introduce  the  subject  myself. 

In  two  or  three  weeks  I  had  nearly  recovered  my 
strength,  and  the  gashes  with  which  my  back  had  been 
scored  were  quite  healed  over.  I  was  beginning  to  wonder 
what  colonel  Moore  intended  to  do  with  me  ;  when,  one 
evening,  I  received  a  message  from  Mr  Stubbs,  to  be  up  by 
sunrise,  the  next  morning,  and  ready  for  a  journey.  Where 
we  were  going,  or  what  was  to  be  the  object  of  our  travels, 
he  did  not  condescend  to  inform  me  ;  nor  did  I  feel  much 
curiosity  to  know.  I  had  now  one  great  consolation.  Do 
what  they  pleased,  it  was  impossible  to  render  me  any 


ARCHY   MOORE.  69 

more  miserable.  It  was  this  idea  which  sustained  me,  and 
enabled  me  to  regard  the  future  with  a  sort  of  careless  and 
stupid  indifference,  at  which,  when  I  reflect  upon  it,  I  am 
myself  surprised. 

In  the  morning,  Mr  Stubbs  came  for  me.  He  was  on 
horseback,  whip  in  hand,  as  usual.  He  undid  my  fetters, 
but  allowed  me  to  retain  my  handcuffs.  He  tied  a  piece 
of  rope  about  my  neck,  and  fastened  the  other  end  of  it  to 
his  own  waist.  Thus  guarded  against  escapes,  he  mounted 
his  horse,  and  bade  me  walk  beside  him.  I  was  still  rather 
weak,  and  sometimes  my  pace  flagged  a  little ; — but  a 
stroke  from  Mr  Stubbs's  whip  soon  quickened  me  into 
vigor.  I  inquired  where  we  were  going.  "  You'll  know 
when  you  get  there,"  was  the  answer. 

That  night  we  lodged  at  a  sort  of  tavern.  We  both 
occupied  one  room, — he  the  bed,  and  I  the  floor.  He 
took  the  cord  from  my  neck  and  bound  my  legs  with  it. 
It  was  drawn  so  tight,  and  caused  me  so  much  pain,  that  I 
could  not  sleep.  Several  times  I  complained  to  Mr  Stubbs  ; 
but  he  bade  me  hold  my  "  damned  tongue,"  and  not  be 
troubling  him  with  foolish  complaints.  The  next  morning 
when  he  came  to  untie  me,  he  found  my  ankles  a  good 
deal  swollen.  He  seemed  sorry  that  he  had  paid  no  more 
attention  to  my  appeals,  but  excused  himself  by  saying, 
that  we  were  all  such  a  devilish  pack  of  liars,  there  was  no 
telling  when  to  believe  us ;  and  he  did  not  want  to  be  at 
the  trouble  of  getting  up  for  nothing. 

The  next  day  we  continued  our  journey  ; — but  I  was  so 
broken  down  by  the  fatigues  of  the  day  previous,  and  by 
the  want  of  sleep,  that  nothing  but  the  frequent  application 
of  Mr  Stubbs's  whip  could  stimulate  me  into  the  necessary 
exertion.  My  spirits  and  that  stubbornness  of  soul,  which 
hitherto  had  sustained  me,  seemed  to  fail  at  the  same  time 
with  my  strength,  and  I  wept  like  a  child.  At  last,  we 
reached  our  journey's  end.  Late  that  evening,  we  entered 
the  city  of  Richmond.  I  am  not  able  to  describe  the  town ; 
for  I  was  hurried  off  to  jail,  and  there  locked  up  for  safe 
keeping. 

I  was  now  told  why  we  had  come.  Colonel  Moore, 
according  to  Mr  Stubbs's  account,  was  sick  of  such  an 


70  MEMOIRS    OF 

unruly  fellow,  and  had  determined  to  sell  me.  I  had  not 
seen  him  since  the  day  I  had  fainted  under  the  energy  ol 
his  paternal  discipline.  Nor  did  I  ever  see  him  afterwards. 
A  strange  parting  that,  between  a  son  and  a  father ! 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE  next  day  I  was  to  be  sold.  There  was  to  be 
a  public  sale  of  slaves,  and  several  besides  myself,  were  to 
be  disposed  of.  I  was  fettered  and  handcuffed,  and  taken 
to  market.  The  rest  of  the  merchandise  was  already  col 
lected  ;  but  it  was  some  time  before  the  sale  began,  and  I 
occupied  the  interval  in  looking  about  me.  Several  of 
the  groups  attracted  my  particular  attention* 

The  first  that  caught  my  eye,  was  an  old  man  whose  head 
was  completely  white,  and  a  pretty  little  girl,  his  grand 
daughter,  as  he  told  me,  about  ten  or  twelve  years  old. 
Both  the  old  man  and  the  little  girl  had  iron  collars  about 
their  necks,  which  were  connected  by  a  heavy  chain.  One 
would  have  imagined,  that  the  old  age  of  the  man,  and  the 
youth  of  the  girl,  would  have  made  such  savage  precautions 
unnecessary.  But  their  master,  so  far  as  I  could  learn,  had 
resolved  to  sell  them  in  a  fit  of  passion,  and  the  chains 
perhaps  were  intended  more  for  punishment  than  security. 

A  man  and  his  wife  with  an  infant  in  her  arms,  stood 
next  to  the  old  man  and  his  daughter.  The  man  and  wife 
were  quite  young,  and  apparently  fond  of  each  other;  at 
least,  they  seemed  very  much  distressed  at  the  idea  of 
falling  into  the  hands  of  different  purchasers.  The  woman 
now  and  then  would  address  some  one  or  other  of  the 
company,  who  seemed  to  indicate  an  intention  of  buying. 
She  would  beg  them  to  purchase  herself  and  her  hus 
band  ;  and  she  ran  over,  with  great  volubility,  the  good 
qualities  of  both.  The  man  looked  on  the  ground,  and 
preserved  a  moody  and  sullen  silence. 

There  was  another  group  of  eight  or  ten  men  and  women, 
who  seemed  to  regard  the  sale  with  as  much  unconcern,  as 


ARCHT   MOORE.  71 

if  they  were  merely  spectators.  They  laughed,  and  talked, 
and  jested  with  one  another  with  as  much  gaiety  as  any  of 
the  company.  An  apologist  for  tyranny,  would  no  doubt, 
rejoice  in  such  a  spectacle,  and  would  be  emboldened  to 
argue,  that  after  all  being  sold  at  public  auction  is  not  so 
terrible  a  thing,  as  some  weak  people  are  apt  to  imagine. 
The  argument  would  be  quite  as  sound  as  any  that  the 
slave-holder  ever  uses  ;  and  for  ingenuity  and  conclusiveness, 
deserves  to  be  compared  with  that  of  the  philosopher,  who 
having  seen  through  the  grates  of  a  prison,  a  parcel  of 
condemned  criminals  laughing  and  jesting  together,  con 
cluded  that  the  expectation  of  being  hung,  must  have  some 
thing  in  it  very  exhilarating. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  human  mind,  in  its  eager,  though 
too  often  unavailing  struggle  after  happiness,  will  still  make 
the  most  of  its  means ; — and  even  in  the  valley  of  despair, 
or  under  the  ribs  of  death  itself,  still  strives  to  create  some 
matter  of  enjoyment.  Even  the  slave  will  sing  at  his  task  ; 
he  can  laugh  too,  though  he  find  himself  sold  like  an  ox  in 
the  market.  The  tyrant  discovers  that  all  his  wrongs  and 
oppressions  have  not  been  able  to  extinguish  in  the  soul  of 
his  victim,  the  capability  of  enjoyment ;  and  he  points  you 
to  these  outbursts  of  a  nature  not  yet  totally  subdued,  and 
dares  to  boast  of  the  happiness  he  causes ! 

But  to  be  sold,  is  not  always  a  laughing  matter.  The 
first  bargain  which  the  auctioneer  offered  to  the  company, 
was  a  man  apparently  about  thirty,  with  a  fine,  open,  pre 
possessing  countenance.  He  had  no  expectation  of  being 
5old,  till  the  moment  he  was  placed  upon  the  table ;  for  it 
appeared  that  his  master  who  lived  near  the  city,  had  lured 
him  to  town  under  the  delusive  pretext  of  an  intention  to 
hire  him  out  to  some  one  of  the  citizens.  When  the  poor 
fellow  found  that  he  was  actually  to  be  sold,  he  was  seized 
with  such  a  trembling  that  he  could  scarcely  support  himself. 
He  shook  from  head  to  foot ;  and  his  face  indicated  the 
greatest  terror  and  distress.  The  two  principal  bidders, — 
ind  they  seemed  to  enter  into  a  pretty  warm  competition, — 
were  a  gentleman  of  the  neighborhood,  who  appeared  to 
know  the  poor  fellow  on  sale,  and  a  dashing,  buckish  young 
man,  who,  it  was  said,  was  a  slave-trader  from  South 


72  MEMOIRS    OF 

Carolina,  who  had  come  to  purchase  slaves  for  that 
market. 

As  the  sale  proceeded,  it  was  curious,  but  at  the  same 
time  most  distressing,  to  observe  the  anxiety  of  the  unhap 
py  slave.  When  the  slave-trader  took  the  lead,  his  jaw 
fell,  his  eyes  rolled  wildly,  and  he  seemed  the  very  picture 
of  despair;  but  when  the  Virginian  bid  higher,  a  gleam  of 
pleasure  shot  across  his  face,  the  tears  ran  down  his  cheeks, 
and  his  earnest  "God  bless  you,  master!"  was  enough  to 
touch  the  hardest  heart.  He  interrupted  the  sale  by  his 
cries  and  vociferations,  and  not  even  the  whip  could  keep 
him  still.  He  called  upon  his  favorite  bidder  by  name,  and 
entreated  him  to  persevere,  by  every  motive  he  could  think 
of.  He  promised  to  serve  him  faithfully  to  the  last  minute 
of  his  life,  and  work  himself  to  death  in  his  service,  if  he 
would  only  buy  him,  only  save  him  from  being  wholly 
separated  from  his  wife  and  children,  and  sent  away — he 
knew  not  whither — from  the  place  where  he  was  born  and 
raised,  and  where,  as  he  said,  he  had  always  behaved  well, 
and  borne  a  good  character.  Not  that  he  had  any  particu 
lar  objections  to  the  other  gentleman  either, — for  the  poor 
fellow  began  to  see  the  danger  of  offending  a  man  who  was 
likely  to  become  his  master ; — no  doubt  he  was  a  very  fine 
gentleman  too  ;  but  he  was  a  stranger,  and  would  take  him 
out  of  the  country,  and  carry  him  far  away  from  his  wife 
and  children ; — and  as  he  mentioned  them,  his  voice  sunk, 
choked  and  interrupted,  to  an  inarticulate  sobbing. 

The  bidders  kept  up  the  contest  with  much  spirit.  The 
man  was  evidently  a  first-rate  hand.  Aside  from  this,  the 
Virginian  seemed  touched  by  the  poor  fellow's  entreaties, 
and  dropped  some  hints  about  slave-traders,  which  put  his 
opponent  into  a  violent  passion,  and  came  near  ending  in 
a  quarrel.  The  interposition  of  the  by-standers,  kept  the 
competitors  apart; — but  the  slave-trader,  whose  passions 
were  roused,  swore  that  he  would  have  the '  boy,'  cost  what 
he  might,  if  it  were  only  to  teach  him  a  little  good  man 
ners.  One  or  two  of  the  company  cried  shame,  and  called 
upon  the  slave-trader  to  leave  off  bidding,  and  suffer  the 
poor  fellow  to  remain  in  the  country.  He  replied  with  an 
oath  and  a  sneer,  that  he  was  not  fool  enough  to  be  bam- 


ARCHY   MOORE.  73 

boozk  d  by  any  such  nonsense ;  and  immediately  rose  fifty 
dollars  on  the  last  bid.  This  was  more  than  the  Virginian 
could  afford  to  sacrifice  to  a  fit  of  good  nature,  and  piqued 
and  chagrined,  he  yielded  up  the  contest.  The  auctioneer 
knocked  off  the  purchase  ;  and  the  man,  more  dead  than 
alive,  was  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  slave-trader's 
attendants,  who  received  orders  to  give  him  twenty  lashes 
on  the  spot,  for  his  "damned  ill-manneredly  Virginian  inso 
lence." 

The  sneering  emphasis,  with  which  this  was  spoken, 
created  no  little  sensation  among  the  by-standers  ;  but  as 
the  slave-trader  strutted  about  with  his  hand  on  his  dirk 
handle,  and  as  two  pistols  might  plainly  be  seen  sticking 
out  of  his  pockets,  nobody  saw  fit  to  question  this  provoking 
exercise  of  '  his  sacred  right  of  property/  and  the  sale  pro 
ceeded  as  before. 

At  length  came  my  turn.  I  was  stripped  half  naked, 
the  better  to  show  my  joints  and  muscles,  and  placed  upon 
the  table  or  platform,  on  which  the  subject  of  the  sale  was 
exposed  to  the  examination  of  the  purchasers.  I  was 
whirled  about,  my  limbs  were  felt,  and  my  capabilities  dis 
cussed,  in  a  slang  much  like  that  of  a  company  of  horse- 
jockeys.  Various  were  the  remarks  that  were  made  upon 
me.  One  fellow  declared  that  I  had  "a  damned  sullen 
look;"  another  swore  that  my  eye  was  "devilish  mali 
cious  ; "  a  third  remarked  that  these  light-colored  fellows 
were  all  rascals ; — to  which  the  auctioneer  replied,  that  he 
never  knew  a  slave  of  any  smartness  who  was  not  a  rogue. 

Abundance  of  questions  were  put  me,  as  to  where  I  was 
raised,  why  1  was  sold,  and  what  I  was  fit  for.  To  all 
these  inquiries  I  made  the  shortest  and  most  indefinite 
answers.  I  was  not  in  a  humor  to  gratify  this  curiosity ; 
and  I  had  none  of  that  ambition  to  bring  a  high  price,  so 
common  among  slaves,  the  last  and  lowest  form  in  which  is 
displayed  that  love  of  superiority,  which  exercises  so  prin 
cipal  an  influence  over  the  feelings  and  the  actions  of  men. 

Mr  Stubbs  kept  in  the  back  ground,  and  said  nothing. 

He  had  his  own  reasons,  I  suppose,  for  this  reserve.     The 

auctioneer  did  his  best.     According  to  his  account,  there  was 

not  a  stronger,  more  laborious,  docile  and  obedient  servant 

7 


MEMOIRS    OF 


to  be  bought  in  all  the  States.  Notwithstanding  all  these 
praises,  a  suspicion  seemed  to  spread  itself  that  my  master 
had  some  reasons  for  selling  me,  which  he  did  not  think  fit 
to  avow.  One  suggested  that  I  must  be  consumptive  ; 
another  thought  it  likely  I  was  subject  to  fits ;  while  a  third 
expressed  the  opinion  that  I  was  an  unruly  fellow  and 
"  mighty  hard  to  manage."  The  scars  on  my  back  tended 
to  confirm  these  suspicions  ;  and  I  was  knocked  off,  at  last, 
at  a  very  low  price,  to  a  portly,  smiling  old  gentleman,  by 
name,  major  Thornton. 

No  sooner  had  the  auctioneer's  hammer  struck  upon  the 
table,  than  my  new  master  spoke  kindly  to  me,  and  ordered 
my  irons  to  be  taken  off.  Against  this,  Mr  Stubbs  and 
the  auctioneer  remonstrated  very  earnestly  ;  and  assured 
the  purchaser  that  if  he  unchained  me,  he  did  it  at  his  own 
risk.  "  I  know  it,"  replied  my  new  master,  "  the  risk  is 
mine, — but  I  will  never  own  a  servant  who  wants  to  run 
away  from  me," 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

WHEN  my  new  master  learned  that  I  had  but  just  recov 
ered  from  a  fever,  and  that  my  strength  was  not  yet  entirely 
restored,  he  procured  a  horse  for  me,  and  we  set  out 
together  for  his  plantation.  He  lived  a  considerable  dis 
tance  west  of  Richmond,  in  that  part  of  the  State,  known 
as  Middle  Virginia.  During  the  ride,  he  entered  into 
conversation  with  me,  and  I  found  him  a  very  different 
person  from  any  one  I  had  ever  met  with  before. 

He  told  me  that  I  might  consider  myself  lucky  in  falling 
into  his  hands  ;  for  he  made  it  a  point  to  treat  his  servants 
better  than  anybody  in  the  neighborhood.  "  If  they  are 
discontented,  or  unruly,  or  apt  to  run  away,"  he  added,  "  1 
sell  them  at  once,  and  so  get  rid  of  them.  I  don't  want 
any  such  fellows  about  me.  But  as  my  servants  know 
very  well,  that  they  stand  no  chance  to  better  themselves 
by  changing  their  master,  they  are  very  cautious  how  they 


ARCUY   MOORE.  75 

offend  me.  Be  obedient,  my  boy,  and  do  your  task,  and  1 
will  ensure  you  plenty  to  eat,  enough  clothes,  and  more 
indulgence  than  you  will  be  likely  to  get  from  any  other 
master."  \Such  was  the  amount  of  major  Thornton's  lec 
ture,  which,  it  took  him  however,  some  five  or  six  hours  to 
get  through  with.  ] 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  before  we  arrived  at  Oakland, 
— for  that  was  the  name  of  major  Thornton's  property. 
The  house  was  of  brick,  with  wooden  porticos.  It  was  not 
large,  but  neat  and  very  handsome,  and  presented  many  more 
appearances  of  substantial  comfort  than  are  to  be  found 
about  most  of  the  houses  of  Virginia.  The  grounds  around 
it,  were  prettily  laid  out,  and  ornamented  with  flowers  and 
shrubbery, — a  thing  quite  uncommon,  and  which  I  had 
seldom  seen  before.  At  a  distance,  on  a  fine  swell,  were 
the  servants'  cabins,  built  of  brick,  neat  and  substantial ; 
not  placed  in  a  straight  line,  but  clustered  together  in  a 
manner  that  had  something  picturesque  about  it.  They 
were  shaded  by  fine  large  oaks  ;  no  underbrush  nor  weeds 
were  suffered  to  grow  about  them,  and  altogether,  they 
presented  an  appearance  of  neatness  and  comfort,  as  new 
and  singular  as  it  was  pleasing.  The  servants'  cabins,  on  all 
the  plantations  I  had  ever  seen  before,  were  a  set  of  miser 
able  ruinous  hovels,  with  leaky  roofs  and  clay  floors,  almost 
buried  in  a  rank  growth  of  weeds,  and  as  dirty  and  ill-kept 
as  they  were  uncomfortable. 

The  children,  who  were  playing  about  the  cabins,  fur 
nished  a  new  occasion  of  surprise.  I  had  been  accustomed 
to  see  the  children  of  a  plantation,  running  about  stark 
naked,  or  dressed — if  dressed  at  all — in  a  shirt  of  dirty 
osnaburgs,  hanging  in  tatters  about  their  legs,  and  never 
washed  after  it  was  once  put  on.  But  the  children  at 
Oakland  were  neatly  and  comfortably  clothed,  and  pre 
sented  nothing  of  that  squalid,  pinched,  neglected  and 
half-starved  appearance,  to  which  my  eye  was  so  well 
accustomed.  Their  merry  faces,  and  boisterous  sports, 
called  up  no  idea  of  juvenile  wretchedness.  I  observed 
too,  that  the  hands,  who  were  just  coming  in  from  their 
work,  were  all  well  clothed.  I  saw  none  of  those  patched, 
tattered,  ragged  and  filthy  garments  so  common  on  other 
plantations. 


76  MEMOIRS    OF 

Major  Thornton  was  not  a  planter  ; — that  is  to  say,  he 
did  not  make  tobacco,  and  he  chose  to  call  himself  a  farmer. 
His  principal  crop  was  wheat ;  and  he  was  a  great  advocate 
for  the  clover  system  of  cultivation,  which  he  had  adopted 
and  pursued  with  much  success.  He  owned  some  thirty 
or  forty  working  hands  ;  the  children  and  superannuated, 
made  his  entire  stock  of  slaves  upwards  of  eighty.  He 
kept  no  overseer,  but  managed  for  himself.  Indeed  it  was 
a  maxim  with  him,  that  an  overseer  was  enough  to  ruin  any 
man.  He  was  naturally  stirring  and  industrious,  and  agri 
culture  was  his  hobby,  a  hobby  which  he  rode  to  some 
purpose. 

In  all  these  things,  and  many  others,  he  was  the  perfect 
contrast  of  all  his  neighbors ;  and  for  that  reason,  very  little 
liked  by  any- of  them.  He  carefully  avoided  horse-racing, 
cock-fights/  political  meetings,  drinking,  gambling,  and  frol 
icking  of  every  sort.  His  money,  he  used  to  say,  cost  him 
too  much  to  make  it,  to  be  thrown  away  upon  a  bet ;  and 
as  to  frolics,  he  had  neither  time  nor  taste  for  any  such 
nonsense.  His  neighbors  revenged  themselves  for  this 
contempt  of  their  favorite  sports,  by  pronouncing  him  a 
mean-spirited  money-making  fellow.  They  went  further, 
and  accused  him  of  being  a  bad  citizen  and  a  dangerous 
neighbor.  They  complained  most  bitterly,  that  his  exces 
sive  indulgence  to  his  servants  made  all  the  slaves  in  the 
neighborhood,  uneasy  and  discontented  ;  and  at  one  time, 
some  of  them  went  so  far  as  to  talk  about  giving  him  warn 
ing  to  move  out  of  the  county. 

But  major  Thornton  was  a  man  of  spirit.  He  under 
stood  his  own  rights ; — he  knew  well  the  people  among 
whom  he  lived,  and  what  sort  of  reasoning  would  influence 
them  most.  He  contrived  to  get  hold  of  an  offensive 
remark  of  one  of  the  busiest  of  his  ill-disposed  neighbors, 
and  sent  him  a  challenge.  It  was  accepted  ;  and  his 
antagonist  was  shot  through  the  heart  at  the  first  fire. 
Henceforward, — though  his  neighbors  liked  him  no  better 
than  before, — they  took  very  good  care  how  they  talked 
about  him,  and  allowed  him  to  go  on  in  his  own  way, 
without  any  interference. 

Major  Thornton  had  not  been  bred  a  planter,  and  this 


ARCHY    MOORE. 


perhaps  was  the  reason,  why  he  departed  so  much  froi<v 
the  ordinary  routine,  and  managed  things  so  very  differently 
from  all  his  neighbors.  He  was  horn  of  a  good  family,  as 
they  say  in  Virginia,  hut  his  father  died  when  he  was  a 
mere  hoy,  and  left  hut  a  very  scanty  property.  He  began 
life,  in  a  small  way.  in  a  country  store.  His  shrewdness, 
economy,  and  attention  to  his  business,  enabled  him,  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years,  to  lay  up  a  considerable  sum  of 
money.  In  Virginia,  trade  is  hardly  looked  upon  as  respec 
table, — at  least,  such  was  the  case  at  the  time  of  which  I  am 
speaking, — and  every  one  who  desires  to  be  any  body,  aims 
at  becoming  a  landed  proprietor.  About  the  time  that 
major  Thornton  had  made  enough,  to  think  of  changing  his 
store  for  a  plantation,  the  proprietor  of  Oakland,  having 
already  wasted  two  good  estates  on  dogs,  horses,  and  wild 
debauchery,  became  so  pressed  for  money,  as  to  be  obliged 
to  bring  his  remaining  property  under  the  hammer.  Major 
Thornton  became  the  purchaser; — but  the  place  he  bought, 
was  very  different  from  Oakland  as  I  saw  it.  The  build 
ings  which  were  old  and  ugly,  were  all  out  of  repair  and 
just  tumbling  to  the  ground ;  and  the  land  was  nearly 
ruined  by  that  miserable,  thriftless  system  of  cultivation,  so 
universal  throughout  the  slave-holding  states  of  America. 

In  a  few  years  after  the  property  had  passed  into  the  hands 
of  major  Thornton,  every  thing  was  changed.  The  old 
houses  were  torn  down  and  new  ones  built.  The  grounds 
about  the  house  were  enclosed  and  ornamented  ;  and  the 
land,  under  skilful  management,  was  fast  regaining  its  origin 
al  fertility.  Those  who  had  been  born  and  bred  planters, 
and  whose  estates  were  very  much  in  the  same  way  in 
which  Oakland  had  been  before  it  fell  into  the  hands  of 
major  Thornton,  looked  at  what  was  going  on  there,  with 
astonishment  and  envy,  and  wondered  how  it  could  possibly 
happen.  Major  Thornton  was  always  ready  to  tell  them  ; 
for  he  was  extremely  fond  of  talking, — particularly  about 
himself  and  his  system  of  farming.  But  though  he  hau 
explained  the  whole  matter  at  least  ten  times,  to  every  on^, 
of  his  neighbors,  he  never  could  make  a  single  convert 
He  nad  three  favorite  topics  ;  but  he  was  equally 
cessful  upon  all  of  them.  He  never  could  persuade 


78  MEMOIRS    OF 

one  of  his  neighbors  that  a  clover  lay  was  the  true  cure 
for  sterile  fields  ;  that  the  only  way  to  have  a  plantation 
well  managed,  was  to  manage  it  one's  self;  or  that  to  give 
servants  enough  to  eat,  was  a  sure  method  to  prevent  them 
from  plundering  the  corn-fields  and  stealing  sheep. 

But  though  major  Thornton  could  gain  no  imitators,  he 
still  persevered  in  farming  according  to  his  own  notions.  In 
no  respect  was  he  more  an  innovator  than  in  the  manage 
ment  of  his  slaves.  A  merciful  man,  he  used  to  say,  is 
merciful  to  his  beast  ;  and  not  having  been  raised  on  a 
plantation,  he  could  not  bear  the  idea  of  treating  his  servants 
worse  than  his  horses.  "  It  may  do  very  wrell  for  you, 
colonel,"  he  said  one  day,  to  one  of  his  neighbors,  "  to  tie 
a  fellow  up  and  give  him  forty  lashes  with  your  own  hand ; 
you  were  born  and  bred  to  it,  and  I  dare  say  you  find  it 
very  easy.  But  as  odd  as  you  may  think  it,  I  had  much 
rather  be  flogged  myself  than  to  flog  one  of  my  servants  ; 
and  though  sometimes  I  am  obliged  to  do  it,  it  is  a  great 
point  with  me  to  get  along  with  as  little  whipping  as  possi 
ble.  That's  a  principal  reason  why  I  keep  no  overseer, — 
for  a  cow-hide  and  a  pair  of  irons,  are  the  only  two  things 
those  fellows  have  any  notion  of.  They  have  no  wish,  and 
if  they  had,  they  have  not  the  sense,  to  get  along  in  any 
other  way  ; — the  devil  take  the  whole  generation  of  them. 
Every  body,  you  know7,  has  their  oddities.  For  my  part,  I 
hate  to  hear  the  crack  of  a  wrhip  on  my  plantation,  even 
though  it  be  nothing  more  than  a  cart-whip." 

The  above  speech  of  major  Thornton's,  contained  a  brief 
summary  of  his  system.  He  was,  what  every  other  slave 
holder  is,  and  from  the  very  necessity  of  his  condition  must 
be, — a  tyrant.  He  felt  no  scruple  in  compelling  his  fellow 
men  to  labor,  in  order  that  he  might  appropriate  the  fruits 
of  that  labor  to  his  own  benefit, — and  in  this  certainly,  if  in 
any  thing,  the  very  essence  of  tyranny  consists.  But 
though  a  tyrant,  as  every  slave-holder  is  and  must  be,  he 
was  a  reasonable  and,  as  far  as  possible,  a  humane  one, — 
which  very  few  slave-holders  either  are  or  can  be.  He  had 
no  more  thought  of  relinquishing  what  he  and  the  laws, 
called  his  property  in  his  slaves,  than  he  had  of  leaving  his 
land  to  be  occupied  by  the  first  comer.  He  would  have 


ARCHY   MOORE.  79 

oeen  as  ready  as  any  of  his  neighbors,  to  have  denounced 
the  idea  of  emancipation,  or  the  notion  of  limiting  his  power 
over  his  servants,  as  a  ridiculous  absurdity,  and  an  imperti 
nent  interference  with  his  '  most  sacred  rights.'  But  though 
in  theory,  he  claimed  all  the  authority  and  prerogatives  of 
the  most  unlimited  despotism,  he  displayed  in  his  practice, 
a  certain  share  of  common  sense  and  common  humanity, — 
two  things,  which  so  far  as  relates  to  the  management  of 
his  slaves,  it  is  extremely  uncommon  for  a  slave-holder  to 
have,  or  if  he  has  them,  very  difficult  for  him  to  exercise. 

These  unusual  gifts  led  him  to  a  discovery,  which  at  the 
time  was  entirely  new  in  his  neighborhood ;  though  I  hope 
before  now,  it  has  become  general.  He  discovered  that 
men  cannot  work  without  eating ;  and  that  so  far  as  the 
capability  of  labor  is  concerned,  there  is  the  same  policy  in 
attending  to  the  food,  shelter  and  comfort  of  one's  slaves,  as 
in  spending  something  on  corn  and  stabling  for  one's  horses. 
'  Feed  well  and  work  hard,5  was  major  Thornton's  motto 
and  practice, — a  motto,  and  a  practice,  which  in  any  other 
country  than  America,  would  never  have  subjected  him  to 
the  charge  of  unreasonable  and  superfluous  humanity. 

As  to  whipping,  major  Thornton,  to  use  his  own  phrase, 
could  not  bear  it.  Whether  he  felt  some  qualms  of  con 
science  at  the  barefaced,  open  tyranny  of  the  lash, — which 
I  do  not  think  very  probable,  for  I  once  heard  him  tell  a 
Methodist  parson,  who  ventured  to  say  something  to  him 
on  that  delicate  subject,  that  he  had  as  much  right  to  flog 
his  slaves  as  to  eat  his  dinner;  or  whether  it  was  the  influ 
ence  of  that  instinctive  humanity  which  is  wanting  only  in 
brutal  tempers,  and  which,  till  evil  custom  has  worn  it  out, 
will  not  permit  us  to  inflict  pain,  without  feeling  ourselves  a 
sympathetic  suffering ;  or  whatever  might  be  the  reason  ; 
unless  major  Thornton  was  put  into  a  passion — to  which 
he  was  but  seldom  liable — he  certainly  had  a  great  horror 
at  using  the  whip. 

But  this  was  not  all.  Another  man  might  have  detested 
it  as  much  as  he  did  ;  but  the  practice  of  a  year  or  two  in 
planting,  and  the  apparent  impossibility  of  dispensing  with 
its  use,  would  have  taught  him  to  get  rid  of  so  inconvenient 
a  squeamishness.  There  are  very  few  men  indeed — and 


80  MEMOIRS    OF 

of  »U  men  in  the  world,  very  few  planters — whose  good 
sense  and  knowledge  of  human  nature,  would  enable  them 
to  manage  their  slaves  by  any  other  means.  Major  Thorn 
ton,  however,  contrived  to  get  on  wonderfully  well ;  and  in 
all  the  time  that  I  lived  with  him,  which  was  nearly  two 
years,  there  were  not  more  than  a  half  a  dozen  whippings 
on  the  place.  If  one  of  his  servants  was  guilty  of  any 
thing,  which  in  a  slave,  is  esteemed  especially  enormous ; 
such  as  running  away,  repeated  theft,  idleness,  insolence 
or  insubordination,  major  Thornton  sent  him  off  to  be  sold. 
By  a  strange,  but  common  inconsistency,  this  man  of  feel 
ing,  who  could  not  bear  to  whip  a  slave,  or  to  see  him 
whipped,  or  even  to  have  him  whipped  on  his  own  planta 
tion,  felt  no  scruples  at  all,  at  tearing  him  from  the  arms  of 
his  wife  arid  children,  and  setting  him  up  at  public  sale,  to 
fall  into  the  hands  of  any  ferocious  master,  who  might 
chance  to  purchase  him  ! 

This  dread  of  being  sold,  was  ever  before  our  eyes  ;  and 
was  as  efficacious  as  the  lash  is,  on  other  plantations,  in  forcing 
us  to  labor  and  submission.  We  knew  very  well,  that 
there  were  few  masters  like  major  Thornton;  and  the 
thought  of  exchanging  our  nice,  neat  cottages,  our  plentiful 
allowance,  our  regular  supply  of  clothing,  and  the  general 
comfort  and  indulgence  of  Oakland,  for  the  fare  and  the 
treatment  to  be  expected  from  the  common  run  of  masters, 
was  more  terrible  than  a  dozen  whippings.  Major  Thorn 
ton  understood  this  well ;  and  he  took  care  to  keep  up  the 
terrors  of  it,  by  making  an  example  of  some  delinquent, 
once  in  a  year  or  two. 

Then  he  had  the  art  of  exciting  our  emulation  by  little 
prizes  and  presents  ;  he  was  very  scrupulous  never  to  exact 
any  thing  beyond  the  appointed  task ;  and  he  kept  us  in 
good  humor,  by  allowing  us,  when  not  at  work,  to  be  very 
much  our  own  masters,  and  to  go  where,  and  do  what  we 
pleased.  We  were  rather  cautious  though,  how  we  visitea 
the  neighboring  plantations  ;  for  with  a  magnanimity  worthy 
of  sWe-holders,  some  of  major  Thornton's  neighbors  were 
in  the  habit  of  gratifying  their  spite  against  him,  by  improv 
ing  every  opportunity  that  offered,  to  abuse  his  servants. 
And  >iere  I  may  as  well  relate  an  incident  that  happened 


ARCHY   MOORE.  81 

lo  myself,  which  will  serve,  at  once,  as  a  curious  illustration 
of  Virginian  manners,  and  a  proof  of  what  I  believe,  will  be 
found  to  be  true  all  the  world  over, — that  where  the  laws 
aim  at  the  oppression  of  one  half  the  people  of  a  country, 
they  are  seldom  treated  with  much  respect  by  the  other  half. 

Captain  Robinson  was  one  of  major  Thornton's  nearest 
neighbors,  and  a  person  with  whom  he  had  frequent  alter 
cations.  I  was  passing  along  on  the  public  road  one  Sun 
day,  at  a  little  distance  from  Oakland,  when  I  met  captain 
Robinson  on  horseback,  followed  by  a  servant.  He  bade  me 
stop,  and  inquired  if  I  was  the  fellow  whom  that  "  damned 
scoundrel  Thornton"  sent  to  his  house  yesterday  with  an 
insolent  message  about  his  lower-field  fences.  I  answered, 
that  I  had  been  sent  yesterday  with  a  message  about  the 
fence,  which  I  had  delivered  to  his  overseer. 

"  A  mighty  pretty  message  it  was,  by  God.  I'll  tell  you 
what,  boy,  if  my  overseer  had  known  his  business,  he 
would  have  tucked  you  up  on  the  spot  and  given  you 
forty  lashes." 

I  told  him  that  I  had  only  delivered  the  message  which 
my  master  had  sent  me  with,  and  it  seemed  hard  to  blame 
me  for  that. 

"  Don't  talk  to  me,  don't  talk  to  me,  you  infernal  scoun 
drel — I'll  teach  both  you  and  your  master  what  it  is  to 
insult  a  gentleman.  Lay  hold  of  him  Tom,  while  I  dust 
that  new  jacket  of  his  a  little." 

Having  received  these  orders  from  his  master,  captain 
Robinson's  man  Tom,  jumped  off  his  horse  and  laid  hold 
of  me  ;  but  as  I  struggled  hard  and  was  the  stronger  of  the 
two,  I  should  soon  have  got  away,  if  the  master  had  not 
dismounted  and  come  to  the  aid  of  his  servant.  Both  to 
gether,  they  were  too  strong  for  me ;  and  having  succeeded 
in  getting  me  down,  they  stripped  off  my  coat,  and  bound 
my  hands.  Captain  Robinson  then  mounted  his  horse,  and 
beat  me  with  his  whip,  till  it  was  quite  worn  out.  Having 
thus  satisfied  his  rage,  he  rode  off  followed  by  Tom,  with 
out  taking  the  trouble  to  loose  my  hands.  They  had  no 
sooner  left  me,  than  I  began  to  look  about  for  my  hat  and 
coat.  Both  were  missing ; — and  whether  it  was  the  cap 
tain  or  his  servant  that  carried  them  off,  I  never  could  dis- 


82  MEMOIRS    OF 

cover.  I  suppose  though,  it  was  the  servant, — for  I  recol 
lect  very  well  seeing  Tom,  a  few  Sundays  after,  strutting 
about  at  a  Methodist  meeting,  with  a  blue  coat  on,  which  I 
could  almost  have  sworn  to  be  mine. 

When  I  got  home,  and  told  my  master  what  had  hap 
pened,  he  was  in  a  towering  passion.  At  first,  he  was  for 
riding  at  once  to  captain  Robinson's  and  calling  for  an 
explanation.  But  presently  he  recollected  that  the  county 
court  was  to  meet  the  next  day,  at  which  he  had  business. 
This  would  give  him  an  opportunity  to  consult  his  lawyer ; 
and  after  a  little  reflection,  he  thought  it  best  not  to  move 
in  the  affiiir  till  he  had  legal  advice  upon  it. 

The  next  day  he  took  me  with  him.  We  called  upon 
the  lawyer  ;  I  told  what  had  happened  to  me,  and  major 
Thornton  inquired  what  satisfaction  the  law  wculd  af 
ford  him. 

The  lawyer  answered,  that  the  law  in  this  case  was  very 
clear,  and  the  remedy  it  provided,  all-sufficient.  "Some 
people,"  he  said,  "who  know  nothing  about  the  matter, 
have  asserted  that  the  law  in  the  slave-holding  States,  does 
not  protect  the  person  of  the  slave  against  the  violence  of 
the  free,  and  that  any  white  man  may  flog  any  slave,  at  his 
own  good  pleasure.  This  is  a  very  great  mistake,;if  not  a 
wilful  falsehood.  The  law  permits  no  such  thing.  It  ex 
tends  the  mantle  of  its  protection  impartially  over  bond  and 
free.  In  this  respect,  the  law  knows  no  distinction/'  If  a 
freeman  is  assaulted,  he  has  his  action  for  damages  against 
the  assailant ;  and  if  a  slave  is  assaulted,  the  master  of  that 
slave,  who  is  his  legal  guardian  and  protector,  can  bring  his 
action  for  damages.  Now  in  this  case,  major  Thornton,  it 
is  quite  plain  that  you  have  good  ground  of  action  against 
captain  Robinson  ;  and  the  jury,  I  dare  say,  will  give  you 
a  swinging  verdict.  I  suppose  you  are  able  to  prove  all 
these  facts?" 

"  Prove  them — to  be  sure,"  answered  my  master,  "  here 
is  Archy  himself  who  has  told  you  the  whole  story." 

"  Yes,  my  good  sir,  but  you  do  not  seem  to  remember 
that  a  slave  cannot  be  admitted  to  testify  against  a  white 
man." 

"  And  pray  tell  me  then,"  said  major  Thornton,  "  what 


ARCHT    MOORE.  S3 

good  the  law  you  speak  of  is  going  to  do  me  ?  Did  not 
Robinson  catch  Archy  alone,  and  abuse  him  as  he  has  told 
you  ?  You  don't  suppose  he  was  fool  enough  to  call  in  a 
white  man  on  purpose  to  be  a  witness  against  him.  Why, 
sir,  notwithstanding  the  protection  of  the  law,  which  you 
commend  so  highly,  every  servant  I  have  may  be  beaten 
by  this  Robinson  every  day  in  the  week,  and  I  not  be  able 
to  get  the  slightest  satisfaction.  The  devil  take  such  law 
I  say." 

"But  my  dear  sir,"  answered  the  lawyer,  "you  must 
consider  the  great  danger  and  inconvenience  of  allowing 
slaves  to  be  witnesses." 

"  Why  yes,"  said  my  master  with  a  half  smile,  "  I  fancy 
it  would  be  rather  dangerous  for  some  of  my  acquaintances  ; 
— quite  inconvenient  no  doubt.  Well  sir,  since  you  say 
the  law  can't  help  me  in  this  matter,  I  must  take  care  of 
myself.  I  cannot  allow  my  servants  to  be  abused  in  this 
way.  I'll  horsewhip  that  scoundrel  Robinson  at  sight." 

With  these  words,  my  master  left  the  office,  and  I  fol 
lowed  behind  him.  We  had  gone  but  a  little  way  down 
the  street,  when  he  had  an  unexpected  opportunity  of  carry 
ing  his  threat  into  execution, — for  as  it  chanced,  we  met 
captain  Robinson,  who  had  business,  it  seemed,  at  the  coun 
ty  court,  as  well  as  major  Thornton.  My  master  did  not 
waste  many  words  upon  him,  but  began  striking  him  over 
the  shoulders  with  his  riding  whip.  Captain  Robinson  drew 
a  pistol ; — my  master  threw  down  his  whip  and  drew  a 
pistol  also.  The  captain  fired,  but  without  effect ;  major 
Thornton  then  levelled  his  weapon, — but  Robinson  called 
out  that  he  was  unarmed  and  begged  him  not  to  fire.  Ma 
jor  Thornton  hesitated  a  moment,  and  then  dropped  his 
hand.  By  this  time,  quite  a  crowd  had  collected  about  us, 
and  some  friend  of  captain  Robinson's  handed  him  a  loaded 
pistol.  The  combatants  renewed  their  aim,  and  fired  to 
gether.  Captain  Robinson  fell  desperately  wounded.  His 
ball  missed  my  master,  but  passed  through  the  body  of  a 
free  colored  man,  who  was  the  only  person,  of  all  the  com 
pany,  who  made  any  attempt  to  separate  the  parties.  The 
poor  fellow  fell  dead  ;  and  the  people  about  declared  that  it 
was  good  enough  for  him, — for  what  right  had  "  a  damned 


84  MEMOIRS    OF 

free  fellow"  like   him   to   be   interfering   between  genth 


men 


Captain  Robinson's  friends  lifted  him  up  and  carried  him 
1  iome.  Major  Thornton  and  myself  walked  off  the  field  in 
triumph, — and  so  the  affair  ended.  Such  affrays  are  much 
talked  about ;  but  the  grand  jury  very  seldom  hears  any 
thing  of  them ;  and  the  conqueror  is  pretty  sure  to  rise  in 
the  public  estimation. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

SOME  persons  perhaps  may  think  that  having  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  such  a  master  as  major  Thornton,  I  had  now 
nothing  to  do,  but  to  eat,  to  work  and  to  be  happy. 

Had  I  been  a  horse  or  an  ox,  there  would  be  good  ground 
for  this  idea ;  but  unfortunately.  I  was  a  man ;  and  the 
animal  appetites  are  by  no  means,  the  only  motive  of  hu 
man  action,  nor  the  sole  sources  of  human  happiness  or 
misery. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  several  of  major  Thornton's  ser 
vants,  born  perhaps  with  but  little  sensibility,  and  brutalized 
by  a  life  of  servitude,  seemed  very  well  content  with  their 
lot.  This  was  the  sort  of  servant,  which  major  Thornton 
especially  admired.  In  this  particular,  he  did  not  differ 
much  from  his  neighbors.  The  more  stupid  a  field  hand 
is,  the  more  he  is  esteemed ;  and  a  slave  who  shows  any 
signs  of  capacity,  is  generally  set  down  as  certain  to  be  a 
rogue  and  a  rascal. 

I  soon  discovered  my  master's  fondness  for  stupid  fel 
lows  ;  and  I  took  care  to  play  the  fool  to  his  entire  satisfac 
tion.  In  a  short  time,  I  made  myself  quite  a  favorite ;  and 
my  master  having  taken  a  fancy  to  me,  I  was  more  indulged 
perhaps,  than  any  servant  on  the  place.  But  this  could 
not  make  me  happy. 

Human  happiness — with  some  very  limited  exceptions — 
is  never  in  fruition,  but  always  in  prospect  and  pursuit.  It 
is  not  this,  that,  or  the  other  situation  that  can  give  happi- 


ARCHY   MOORE.  85 

ness.  Riches,  power  or  glory,  are  nothing  when  possessed. 
It  is  the  pleasure  of  the  pursuit  and  the  struggle,  it  is  the 
very  labor  of  their  attainment,  in  which  consists  the  happi 
ness  they  bring. 

Those  moralists  who  have  composed  so  many  homilies 
upon  the  duty  of  contentment,  betray  an  extreme  ignorance 
of  human  nature.  No  situation,  however  splendid,  in  which 
one  is  compelled  to  remain  fixed  and  stationary,  can  long 
afford  pleasure ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  no  condition,  how- 
over  destitute  or  degraded,  out  of  which  one  has  a  fair 
propect,  or  any  thing  like  a  sufficient  hope  of  rising,  can 
justly  be  considered  as  utterly  miserable.  This  is  the  con 
stitution  of  the  human  mind ;  and  in  it,  we  find  the  ex 
planation  of  a  thousand  things,  which  without  this  key  to 
their  meaning,  seem  full  of  mystery  and  contradiction. 

Though  all  men  have  not  the  same  objects  of  pursuit, 
all  are  impelled  and  sustained  by  the  same  hope  of  success. 
Nothing  can  satisfy  the  lofty  desires  of  one  man,  but  influ 
ence,  fame,  or  power,  the  myrtle  wreath  or  laurel  crown ; 
another  aims  no  higher  than  to  rise  from  abject  poverty  to  a 
little  competency,  or,  if  his  ambition  is  of  another  sort,  to 
be  the  chief  person  in  his  native  village,  or  the  oracle  of  a 
country  neighborhood.  How  different  are  these  aims ! — 
and  yet,  the  impulse  that  prompts  them,  is  the  same.  It  is 
the  desire  jpf  social  superiority.  He  whom  circumstances 
permit  to  yield  to  this  impulse  of  his  nature,  and  to  pursue 
— successfully  or  not,  it  matters  little — but  to  pursue  with 
some  tolerable  prospect  of  success,  the  objects  which  have 
captivated  his  fancy,  may  be  regarded  as  having  all  the 
chance  for  happiness,  which  the  lot  of  humanity  allows ; 
while  he,  whom  fate,  or  fortune,  or  whatever  malignant  cause, 
compels  to  suppress  and  forego  the  instinctive  impulses  and 
wishes  of  his  heart — whatever  in  other  respects  may  be  his 
situation — is  a  wretch  condemned  to  sorrow,  and  deserving 
pity.  To  the  one,  toil  is  itself  a  pleasure.  He  is  a  hunter 
whom  the  sight  of  his  game  fills  with  delight,  and  makes 
insensible  to  fatigue.  Desire  sustains  him,  and  Hope  cheers 
him  on.  These  are  delights  the  other  never  knows  ;  for 
him,  life  has  lost  its  relish ;  rest  is  irksome  to  him,  and  la 
bor  is  intolerable. 
8 


86  MEMOIRS    OF 

This  is  no  digression.  He  who  has  taken  the  pains  to 
read  the  preceding  paragraph,  will  be  able  to  understand, 
how  it  happened,  that  even  with  such  a  master  as  major 
Thornton,  I  was  neither  happy  nor  content. 

It  is  true  I  was  well  fed,  well  clothed,  and  not  severely 
worked ;  and  in  these  particulars, — as  my  master  was  fond 
of  boasting,  and  as  I  have  since  found  to  be  the  case, — my 
situation  was  far  superior  to  that  of  very  many  freemen. 
But  I  lacked  one  tiling  which  every  freeman  has ;  and  that 
one  want  was  enough  to  make  me  miserable.  I  wanted 
liberty  ;  the  liberty  of  laboring  for  myself,  not  for  a  master ; 
of  pursuing  my  own  happiness,  instead  of  toiling  at  his 
pleasure,  and  for  his  gain.  This  liberty  can  lighten  the 
hardest  lot.  He  knows  but  little  of  human  nature,  who  has 
not  discovered,  that  to  all  who  rise  one  step  above  the 
brutes,  it  is  far  pleasanter  to  starve  and  freeze  after  their 
own  fashion,  than  to  be  fed  and  clothed  and  worked  upon 
compulsion. 

I  was  wretched, — for  I  had  no  object  of  hope  or  rational 
desire.  I  was  a  slave  ;  and  the  laws  held  out  no  prospect 
of  emancipation.  All  the  efforts  in  the  world  could  not 
better  my  condition  ;  all  the  efforts  in  the  world  could  not 
prevent  me  from  falling — perhaps  tomorrow — into  the  hands 
of  another  master,  as  cruel  and  unreasonable  as  evil  pas 
sions  and  hard-heartedness  could  make  him.  The  future 
offered  only  the  chance  of  evils.  I  might  starve  with  cold 
and  hunger  as  well  as  another ;  I  might  perish  by  gun-shot 
wounds,  or  the  torture  of  the  lash  ;  or  be  hung  up,  perhaps, 
without  judge  or  jury.  But  of  bettering  my  condition,  I 
had  neither  chance,  nor  hopes.  I  was  a  prisoner  for  life  ; 
at  the  present  moment,  not  suffering  for  food  or  clothing, 
but  without  the  slightest  prospect  of  liberation ;  and  likely 
enough  at  any  moment,  to  change  my  keeper,  and  under 
the  discipline  of  a  new  jailer,  to  feel  the  pinchings  of  cold 
and  hunger,  and  to  tremble  daily  beneath  the  whip.  I  was 
cut  off  and  excluded  from  all  those  hopes  and  wishes,  which 
are  the  chief  impulses  of  human  action.  I  could  not  aim 
to  become  the  master  of  a  little  cottage,  which,  howevei 
ftumbie,  I  .might  call  my  own ;  to  be  the  lord  of  one  poor 
acre,  which  however  small  or  barren,  might  still  be  mine 


ARCHY    MOORE.  87 

I  could  not  many — alas,  poor  Gassy! — and  become  the 
father  of  a  family,  with  the  fond  hope,  that  when  age  should 
overtake  me,  I  might  still  find  pleasure  and  support,  in  the 
kindness  of  children  and  the  sympathy  of  a  wife.  My 
children  might  be  snatched  from  the  arms  of  their  mother, 
and  sold  to  the  slave-trader ;  the  mother  might  be  sent  to 
keep  them  company, — and  I  be  left  old,  desolate,  uncom- 
forted.  Motives  such  as  these,  motives  which  strengthen 
the  freeman's  arm  and  cheer  his  heart,  were  unfelt  by  me. 
I  labored ; — but  it  was  only  because  I  feared  the  lash. 
The  want  of  willingness  unnerved  me,  and  every  stroke 
cost  a  new  effort. 

It  is  even  true,  that  major  Thornton's  humanity,  or  to 
speak  more  correctly,  his  sense  of  his  own  interest,  while  it 
preserved  his  servants  from  the  miseries  of  hunger  and 
nakedness,  at  the  same  time,  exposed  those  among  them, 
whom  slavery  and  ignorance  had  not  completely  brutalized, 
to  other  and  more  excruciating  miseries.  Had  we  been  but 
half  fed  and  half  clothed,  like  the  servants  on  several  of  the 
neighboring  plantations,  we  should,  like  them,  have  enjoyed 
the  excitement  of  plunder.  We  should  have  found  some 
exercise  for  our  ingenuity,  and  some  object  about  which  to 
interest  ourselves,  in  plans  and  stratagems  for  eking  out  our 
short  allowance  by  the  aid  of  theft. 

As  it  was,  stealing  was  but  little  practised  at  Oakland. 
The  inducement  was  too  small,  and  the  risk  too  great, — 
for  detection  was  certain  to  result  in  being  sold.  Money 
was  no  object  to  us  ;  we  could  only  spend  it  on  food  and 
clothes,  and  of  these  we  had  enough  already.  Whiskey 
was  the  only  luxury  we  wanted  ;  and  we  could  make 
enough  to  purchase  that,  without  the  necessity  of  theft. 
Mr  Thornton  allowed  each  of  us  a  little  piece  of  ground. 
That  was  customary  ; — but  what  was  quite  contrary  to 
custom,  he  allowed  us  time  to  cultivate  it.  He  endeavored 
to  stimulate  our  industry  by  the  promise  of  buying  all  we 
could  produce,  not  at  a  mere  nominal  price,  as  was  the 
fashion  on  other  plantations,  but  at  its  full  value. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  it,  but  it  is  not  the  less  true,  that  major 
Thornton's  people,  like  all  slaves  who  have  the  means  and 
the  opportunity,  were  generally  drunkards.  Our  master 


MEM   'IRS    OP 

took  good  care  that  whiskey  did  not  interfere  with  our  work. 
To  be  drunk  before  the  task  was  finished  was  a  high  mis 
demeanor.  But  after  the  day's  labor  was  over,  we  were  at 
liberty  to  drink  as  much  as  we  pleased ; — provided  always, 
that  it  did  not  prevent  us  from  turning  out  at  daylight  the 
next  morning.  Sunday  was  generally  a  grand  Saturnalia. 

Hitherto,  I  had  scarcely  been  in  the  habit  of  drinking. 
But  now  I  began  to  be  eager  for  anything  which  promised 
to  sustain  my  sinking  spirits,  and  to  excite  my  stagnant  soul. 
I  soon  found  in  whiskey,  a  something  that  seemed  to  answer 
the  purpose.  In  that  elevation  of  heart  which  drunkenness 
inspires,  that  forgetfulness  of  the  past  and  the  present,  that 
momentary  halo  with  which  it  crowns  the  future,  I  found  a 
delight  which  I  hastened  to  repeat,  and  knew  not  how  to 
forego.  Reality  was  to  me  a  blank,  dark  and  dreary. 
Action  was  forbidden  ;  desire  was  chained ;  and  hope  shut 
out.  I  was  obliged  to  find  relief  in  dreams  and  illusions. 
Drunkenness,  which  degrades  the  freeman  to  a  level  with 
the  brutes,  raises,  or  seems  to  raise  the  slave,  to  the  dignity 
of  a  man.  It  soon  became  my  only  pleasure,  and  I 
indulged  it  to  excess.  Every  day,  as  soon  as  my  task  was 
finished,  I  hastened  to  shut  myself  up  with  my  bottle.  I 
drank  in  solitude, — for  much  as  I  loved  the  excitement  of 
drunkenness,  I  could  not  forget  its  beastliness  and  insanity, 
and  I  hated  to  expose  my  folly  to  the  sight  of  my  fellow 
servants.  But  my  precautions  were  not  always  successful. 
In  the  phrensy  of  excitement  I  sometimes  forgot  all  my 
sober  precautions ;  undid  the  bolts  I  had  carefully  fastened  ; 
and  sought  the  company  I  most  desired  to  shun. 

One  Sunday,  I  had  been  drinking,  till  I  was  no  longer  the 
master  of  my  own  actions.  I  had  left  my  house,  and  gone 
to  seek  some  boon-companions  with  whom  to  protract  the 
revel  and  increase  its  zest.  But  I  was  unable  to  distinguish 
one  object  from  another,  and  after  straggling  off  for  some 
distance,  I  sunk  down,  almost  insensible,  upon  the  carnage 
way,  which  led  towards  major  Thornton's  house. 

I  had  grown  a  little  more  sober,  and  was  endeavoring  to 
rally  my  thoughts  and  to  recollect  where  1  was,  and  what 
had  brought  me  there,  when  I  saw  my  master  riding  up  the 
road,  with  two  other  gentlemen.  They  were  all  on  horse- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  89 

back  ;  and  as  drunk  as  I  was,  I  saw  at  a  glance,  that  my 
master's  two  companions,  were  very  much  in  the  same 
predicament.  The  manner  in  which  they  reeled  backward 
and  forward  in  their  saddles  was  truly  laughable ;  and  I 
expected  every  moment  to  see  them  fall.  I  made  these 
observations  as  I  lay  upon  the  road,  without  once  thinking 
where  I  was,  or  recollecting  the  danger  I  was  in,  of  being 
ridden  over.  They  had  come  quite  near  before  they 
noticed  me.  By  that  time  I  was  sitting  up,  and  my  master's 
drunken  companions  took  it  into  their  heads,  to  jump  their 
horses  over  me.  Major  Thornton  did  his  best  to  prevent 
them  ;  one,  he  succeeded  in  stopping ;  but  the  other  evaded 
his  attempt  to  seize  the  bridle,  swore  that  the  sport  was  too 
pretty  to  be  lost,  put  spurs  to  his  horse,  and  brought  him  up 
to  the  leap. 

But  the  horse  had  no  fancy  for  this  sort  of  sport.  When 
he  saw  me  before  him,  he  started  back,  and  his  drunken 
rider  came  tumbling  to  the  ground.  The  others  dismounted 
and  went  to  his  assistance.  Before  he  was  well  upon  his 
feet,  he  begged  major  Thornton's  attention,  and  forthwith 
commenced  a  very  grave  lecture  on  the  indecency  of  allow 
ing  servants  to  get  drunk,  and  to  lie  about  the  plantation, 
— particularly  across  the  roads,  frightening  gentlemen's 
horses,  and  putting  the  necks  of  their  riders  into  jeopardy. 
"  Especially  you,  major  Thornton,  who  pretend  to  be  a 
pattern  for  all  of  us.  By  God,  sir,  if  you  did  as  you  ought 
to  do,  every  time  one  of  the  damned  fellows  had  the  inso 
lence  to  get  drunk,  you  would  tie  him  up  and  give  him  forty 
lashes.  That's  the  way  I  do,  on  my  plantation." 

My  master  was  so  very  fond  of  setting  forth  his  method 
of  farming,  and  his  plan  of  plantation-discipline,  that  he  did 
not  always  stop  to  consider  whether  his  auditors  were  drunk 
or  sober.  The  present  opportunity  was  too  good  to  be  lost, 
and  rubbing  his  hands  together,  he  answered,  with  a  half- 
smile,  and  a  very  sagacious  look, — "  But,  my  dear  sir,  you 
must  know  it  is  a  part  of  my  plan  to  let  my  servants  drink 
as  much  as  they  please,  so  that  it  does  not  interfere  with 
their  tasks.  Poor  fellows  !  it  serves  to  keep  them  out  of 
mischief,  and  soon  makes  them  so  stupid  they  are  the  easiest 
creakires  in  the  world  to  manage."  Here  he  paused  a 
8* 


90  MEMOIRS    OF 

minute,  and  assuming  the  look,  which  a  man  puts  on,  who 
thinks  he  is  going  to  urge  an  unanswerable  argument — 
"  Besides,"  he  added,  "  if  one  of  these  drinking  fellows 
happens  to  take  a  huff  and  runs  away,  the  very  first  thing 
he  does,  is  to  get  drunk,  so  that  you  seldom  have  any 
difficulty  in  catching  him." 

Though  I  was  still  too  much  under  the  influence  of 
whiskey,  to  be  capable  of  much  muscular  motion,  I  had  so 
far  recovered  my  senses  as  to  comprehend  perfectly,  all  that 
my  master  was  saying ;  and  no  sooner  had  he  finished,  than, 
drunk  as  I  was,  I  made  a  resolution  to  drink  no  more.  I 
was  not  yet  so  far  lost,  as  to  be  able  to  endure  the  idea,  of 
being  myself  the  instrument  of  my  own  degradation.  My 
resolution  was  well  kept ;  for  I  have  seldom  tasted  spirits 
since  that  day. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

IT  is  the  lot  of  the  slave,  to  be  exposed,  in  common  with 
other  men,  to  all  the  calamities  of  chance  and  all  the 
caprices  of  fortune.  But  unlike  other  men,  he  is  denied 
the  consolation  of  struggling  against  them.  He  is  bound 
hand  and  foot ;  and  his  sufferings  are  aggravated  ten  fold, 
by  the  bitter  idea  that  he  is  not  allowed  to  help  himself,  or 
to  make  any  attempt  to  escape  the  blow,  which  he  sees 
impending  over  him.  This  idea  of  utter  helplessness,  is 
one  of  the  most  distressing  in  nature  :  it  is  twin-sister  to 
Despair. 

Major  Thornton,  by  over  exertion  and  imprudent  ex 
posure,  brought  on  a  fever,  which  in  a  short  time,  assumed 
a  very  unfavorable  aspect.  It  was  the  first  time  he  had 
been  sick  for  many  years.  The  alarm  and  even  terror, 
which  the  news  of  his  danger  excited  at  Oakland,  was  very 
great.  Every  morning  and  evening,  we  collected  about  the 
house  to  learn  how  our  master  did ;  and  mournful  were  the 
faces,  and  sad  the  hearts,  with  which  we  heard  the  bitter 
words,  "  no  better."  The  women,  at  Oakland,  had  always 


ARCHY    MOORE.  91 

been  treated  with  peculiar  indulgence,  such  as  their  sex  and 
weakness  demands, — but  demands  so  often  without  obtain 
ing  it.  Major  Thornton's  illness  gave  an  instance  how  full 
of  gratitude  is  the  female  heart,  and  at  what  a  trifling  ex 
pense,  one  may  purchase  its  most  zealous  affection.  All 
the  women  on  the  place,  were  anxious  to  be  employed,  in 
some  way,  in  ministering  to  the  comfort  of  their  suffering 
master.  The  most  disagreeable  duties  were  eagerly  per 
formed  ;  and  if  ever  man  was  tenderly  and  assiduously 
nursed,  it  was  major  Thornton.  But  all  this  care,  all  our 
sympathy,  our  sorrow  and  our  terrors,  were  of  no  effect. 
The  fever  raged  with  unabated  fury,  and  seemed  to  find 
new  fuel  in  the  strength  of  the  patient's  constitution.  But 
that  fuel  was  soon  exhausted ;  and  in  ten  days,  our  master 
was  no  more. 

When  his  decease  became  known,  we  looked  upon  each 
other  in  silent  consternation.  A  family  of  helpless  orphans, 
from  whom  death  had  just  snatched  their  last  surviving 
parent,  could  not  have  felt  a  greater  destitution.  Tears 
rolled  down  the  cheeks  of  the  men ;  and  the  lamentations 
of  the  women  were  violent  and  wild.  His  old  nurse,  in 
particular,  wept,  and  would  not  listen  to  any  consolation. 
She  had  good  reason.  At  his  father's  death  she  had 
been  sold,  with  the  other  property,  to  satisfy  the  creditors. 
But  major  Thornton  had  re-purchased  her,  out  of  his  very 
first  earnings ;  he  had  made  her  the  head-servant  of  his 
household,  and  had  always  treated  her  with  great  tender 
ness.  The  old  woman  loved  him  like  her  own  child,  and 
lamented  her  "  dear  son  Charley,"  as  she  called  him,  with 
all  the  pathetic  energy  of  a  widowed  and  childless  mother. 

We  all  attended  the  funeral,  and  followed  our  dead 
master  to  the  grave.  The  hollow  sound  of  the  earth  as  it 
fell  upon  the  coffin,  was  echoed  back  from  every  bosom  ; 
and  when  this  last  sad  office  was  finished,  we  stood  over 
the  spot,  and  wept  together.  Doubt  not  the  sincerity 
of  our  sorrow !  It  was  for  ourselves  we  were  lamenting. 

Major  Thornton  was  never  married  ;  and  he  left  no  chil 
dren  whose  rights  the  laws  acknowledged.  If  he  had  in 
tended  to  make  a  will,  his  sudden  death  prevented  him ; 
and  his  property  passed  to  a  troop  of  cousins  for  whom, 


92  MEMOIRS    OF 

I  suspect,  he  did  not  entertain  any  great  affection.  At  all 
events,  I  had  never  seen  any  of  them  at  Oakland,  nor  could 
I  learn  from  the  other  servants,  that  either  of  them  had 
ever  made  a  visit  there.  It  was  thus  that  we  hecame  the 
property  of  strangers,  who  had  never  seen  us,  and  whom 
we  had  never  seen. 

These  heirs-at-law  were  poor  as  well  as  numerous,  and 
seemed  very  eager  to  turn  all  the  property  into  money,  so 
as  to  get  their  several  shares  with  the  least  possible  delay. 
An  order  of  court,  or  whatever  the  legal  process  might  be 
called,  was  soon  obtained  ;  and  the  sale  of  the  slaves  was 
advertized  to  take  place  at  the  county  court-house.  The 
agent  to  whom  the  care  of  the  estate  was  intrusted,  made 
the  necessary  preparations.  Of  course,  it  was  not  thought 
expedient  that  we  should  know  what  was  going  on,  or  what 
our  new  owners  intended  to  do  with  us.  The  secret  was 
carefully  kept  lest  some  of  us  should  run  away. 

The  day  before  that  which  had  been  appointed  for  the 
sale,  we  were  collected  together.  The  able  bodied  men 
and  women  were  handcuffed  and  chained  in  a  string.  A 
few  old  grey  headed  people  and  the  younger  children  were 
carried  in  a  cart.  The  rest  of  us  were  driven  along  like 
cattle — men,  women  and  children  together.  Three  fellows 
on  horseback,  with  the  usual  equipment  of  long  whips, 
served  at  once,  as  guards  and  drivers. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe  our  affliction.  It  would 
be  but  the  repetition  of  an  oft-told  tale.  Who  has  not  read 
of  slave-traders  on  the  coast  of  Africa  ?  Whose  heart  has 
not  ached  at  picturing  the  terrors  and  despair  of  the  kid 
napped  victims  ?  Our  case  was  much  the  same.  Many 
of  us  had  been  born  and  reared  at  Oakland,  and  all  looked 
upon  it  as  a  home, — nay  more,  as  a  city  of  refuge,  where 
we  had  always  been  safe  from  gratuitous  insults  and  aggres 
sions.  From  this  home,  we  were  now  snatched  away, 
without  a  moment's  warning  ;  and  were  driven  chained  to 
the  slave-market  to  be  sold  to  the  highest  bidder. 

Is  it  strange  that  we  were  reluctant  to  go?  Had  we 
been  setting  out,  of  our  own  accord,  to  seek  our  fortunes, 
we  could  not  have  broken,  all  at  once,  all  the  ties  that 
bound  us  to  Oakland,  without  some  throbs  of  natural  grief 


ARCHY    MOORE.  93 

What  then,  must  have  been  our  anguish  to  leave  it  as 
we  did  ? 

But  the  tears  of  the  men,  the  sobs  of  the  women,  and 
the  cries  and  terrors  of  the  poor  children,  availed  us  nothing. 
Our  conductors  cracked  their  whips,  and  made  a  jest  of  our 
lamentations.  Our  sorrowful  procession  moved  slowly  on  ; 
and  many  a  sad  lingering  look,  we  cast  behind  us.  We 
said  nothing;  and  our  melancholy  reflections  were  only 
interrupted  by  the  curses,  shouts,  and  loud  laughter  of  our 
drivers. 

We  lodged,  that  night,  by  the  road  side ;  our  drivers 
sleeping  and  keeping  watch  by  turns.  The  next  day,  we 
reached  the  county  court-house,  and  at  the  appointed  hour, 
the  sale  began.  The  company  was  not  very  numerous, 
and  the  bidders  seemed  extremely  shy.  Many  of  our  late 
master's  neighbors  we're  present.  One  of  them  remarked 
that  several  of  us  were  fine  stout  fellows,  but,  for  his  part, 
he  should  be  afraid  to  buy  any  of  the  Thornton  hands,  for 
we  had  been  so  spoiled  by  our  late  master's  foolish  indul 
gence,  that  one  of  us  would  be  enough  to  spread  discontent 
through  a  whole  neighborhood.  This  speech  was  received 
with  evident  applause,  and  it  had  its  intended  effect.  The 
auctioneer  did  his  best,  and  harangued  most  eloquently  upon 
our  healthy,  sound  and  plump  condition.  "  As  to  the  over 
indulgence,  that  gentleman  speaks  about,"  he  added,  "  a 
good  cow-hide  and  strict  discipline  will  soon  bring  them 
into  proper  subordination  ; — and  from  what  I  have  heard 
of  that  gentleman's  own  management,  he  is  the  very  person 
who  ought  to  buy  them."  A  slight  titter  ran  through  the 
company,  at  this  sally  of  the  auctioneer's,  but  it  did  not 
seem  to  make  the  bidding  much  brisker.  We  went  off  at 
very  moderate  prices.  Most  of  the  younger  men  and  women, 
and  a  large  proportion  of  the  children  were  bought  by  a 
slave-trader,  who  had  come  on  purpose  to  attend  the  sale. 
It  was  very  difficult  to  get  a  bid  for  several  of  the  old  people. 
Mr  Thornton's  nurse,  who,  as  I  have  mentioned,  had  been 
his  house-keeper,  and  a  person  of  no  little  consequence  at 
Oakland,  was  knocked  off  for  twenty  dollars.  She  was 
bought  by  an  old  fellow,  well  known  in  the  neighborhood 
for  his  cruelty  to  his  servants.  He  shook  his  head  as  the 


94  MEMOIRS    OF 

auctioneer's  hammer  struck  the  table,  grinned  a  significant 
smile,  and  said  he  believed  the  girl  was  yet  able  to  handle 
a  hoe ; — any  how,  he  would  get  one  summer's  work  out  of 
her.  The  old  lady  had  scarcely  held  up  her  head  since 
the  death  of  her  master;  but  she  forgot  all  her  sorrows,  she 
forgot  even  to  deplore  the  lot  that  seemed  to  await  her,  in 
her  anger  at  being  sold  at  so  small  a  price.  She  turned  to 
her  purchaser,  and  with  an  indignant  air,  told  him  that  she 
was  both  younger  and  stronger  than  folks  thought  for,  and 
assured  him  that  he  had  made  the  best  bargain  of  any  of 
the  company.  The  old  fellow  chuckled,  but  said  nothing. 
It  was  easy  to  read  his  thoughts.  He  was  evidently  re 
solving  to  hold  the  old  woman  to  her  word. 

Some  of  the  old  and  decrepit  slaves  could  not  be  sold  at 
all.  They  were  not  worth  purchasing,  and  nobody  would 
make  an  oiler.  I  do  not  know  what  became  of  them. 

The  slave-dealer  who  had  purchased  most  of  the  children, 
declined  buying  such  of  the  mothers  as  were  past  the  age 
of  child-bearing.  The  parting  of  these  mothers  from  their 
children,  was  a  new  scene  of  misery  and  lamentation.  The 
poor  things,  snatched  a  little  while  before,  from  the  home 
of  their  birth  and  their  infancy,  and  now,  torn  from  the 
mothers  that  bore  and  nursed  them,  clasped  their  little  hands, 
and  shrieked  with  all  the  unrestrained  vehemence  of  infant 
agony.  The  mothers  wept  too  ;  but  their  grief  was  more 
subdued.  There  was  one  old  woman,  the  mother,  she  said, 
of  fifteen  children.  One  little  girl,  about  ten  or  twelve 
years  old,  was  all  that  remained  to  her.  The  others  had 
been  sold  and  scattered,  she  knew  not  whither.  She  was 
now  to  part  from  her  youngest  and  only  remaining  child. 
The  little  girl  clung  to  her  mother's  dress  with  all  the  terror 
of  one  who  was  about  to  be  kidnapped,  and  her  screams 
and  cries  might  have  touched  a  heart  of  stone.  Her  new 
master  snatched  the  child  away,  hit  her  a  cut  with  his  whip, 
and  bade  her  hold  her  "  damned  clatter."  A  slave-trader, 
however  he  may  have  the  exterior  of  a  gentleman,  is  in  fact, 
the  same  ferocious  barbarian,  whether  on  the  coast  of  Guinea, 
or 'in  the  heart  of  the  f  Ancient  Dominion.' 

When  our  new  master  had  completed  his  purchases,  he 
prepared  to  set  out  with  his  drove.  He  was  one  of  a 


ARC1IY    MOORE.  95 

?lave-dealing  firm,  whose  head  quarters  were  at  the  city  of 
Washington,  the  seat  of  the  federal  government,  and  the 
capital  of  the  United  States  of  America.  It  was  to  this 
place  that  he  intended  to  carry  us.  The  whole  purchase 
was  about  forty  head,  consisting  in  nearly  equal  proportions 
of  men,  women  and  children.  We  were  joined  in  couples 
hy  iron  collars  about  our  necks,  which  were  connected  by 
a  link  of  iron.  To  these  connecting  links,  a  heavy  chain 
was  fastened,  extending  from  one  end  of  the  drove  to  the 
other.  Besides  all  this,  the  right  and  left  hands  of  every 
couple  were  fastened  together  by  hand-cuffs,  and  another 
chain  passed  along  these  fastenings.  The  collars  about  our 
necks,  with  their  connecting  chain,  might  have  been  thought 
perhaps,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  a  sufficient  security; 
but  as  our  new  master  had  heard  from  major  Thornton's 
neighbors,  who  were  present  at  the  sale,  that  we  were  "  a 
set  of  very  dangerous  fellows,"  he  thought  it  best,  as  he 
said,  to  omit  no  reasonable  means  of  security. 

The  drove  was  presently  put  in  motion.  Our  purchas 
ers,  with  two  or  three  assistants,  rode  beside  us  on  horseback, 
armed  with  whips,  as  usual.  The  journey  was  slow,  sad 
and  wearisome.  We  travelled  without  any  good  will ;  the 
poor  children  harassed  with  the  weight  of  their  chains,  and 
unaccustomed  to  fatigue  ;  and  all  of  us,  faint  for  want  of 
food  ; — for  our  new  master  was  an  economist,  who  spent  as 
little  on  the  road,  as  possible. 

I  will  not  dwell  upon  the  tedious  monotony  of  our  suffer 
ings  and  our  journey.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  after  travelling 
for  several  days,  we  crossed  the  no})te  and  wide-spreading 
Potomac,  and  late  at  night,  began  to  enter  the  federal  city. 
Perhaps  I  ought  to  say,  the  place  where  the  federal  city 
was  to  be, — for  Washington,  at  that  time,  seemed  only  a 
.straggling  village,  scattered  over  a  wide  extent  of  ground, 
and  interspersed  with  deserted  fields,  overgrown  with  bush 
es.  There  were  some  indications  however,  of  the  future 
metropolis.  The  Capitol,  though  unfinished,  was  rearing 
its  spacious  walls  in  the  moonlight,  and  gave  promise  of  a 
magnificent  edifice.  Lights  gleamed  from  the  windows. 
The  Congress  perhaps  was  in  session.  I  gazed  at  the 
building  with  no  little  emotion.  "  This,"  said  I  to  myself, 


96  MEMOIRS    or 

"  is  the  head  quarters  of  a  great  nation,  the  spot  in  which 
its  concentrated  wisdom  is  collected,  to  devise  laws  for  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  community, — the  just  and  equal  Jaws 
of  a  free  people  and  a  great  democracy  !" — I  was  going  on 
with  this  mental  soliloquy,  when  the  iron  collar  about  my 
neck  touched  a  place  from  which  it  had  rubbed  the  skin; 
and  as  I  started  with  the  pain,  the  rattling  of  chains  remind 
ed  me,  that  c  these  just  and  equal  laws  of  a  free  people  and 
a  great  democracy*  did  not  avail  to  rescue  a  million*  of 
bondmen  from  hopeless  servitude  ;  and  the  cracking  of  our 
drivers'  whips  told  too  plainly  that  within  a  stone's  throw 
of  the  Temple  of  Liberty — nay,  under  its  very  porticos — 
the  most  brutal,  odious  and  detestable  tyranny  found  none 
to  rebuke,  or  to  forbid  it.  What  sort  of  liberty  is  it  whose 
chosen  city  is  a  slave-market  ? — and  what  that  freedom, 
which  permits  the  bravado  insolence  of  a  slave-trading  aris 
tocracy  to  lord  it  in  the  very  halls  of  her  legislation  ? 

We  passed  up  the  street  which  led  by  the  Capitol,  and 
presently  arrived  at  the  establishment  of  Savage,  Brothers 
&  Co,  our  new  masters.  Half  an  acre  of  ground,  more  or 
less,  was  enclosed  with  a  wall  some  twelve  feet  high,  well 
armed  at  the  top,  with  iron  spikes  and  pieces  of  broken 
bottles.  In  the  centre  of  the  enclosure,  was  a  low  brick 
building  of  no  great  size,  with  a  few  narrow,  grated  win 
dows,  and  a  stout  door,  well  secured  with  bars  and  pad 
locks.  This  was  the  establishment  used  by  Messrs  Savage, 
Brothers  &  Co  as  a  ware-house,  in  which  they  stowed 
away  such  slaves,  as  they  purchased  from  time  to  time,  in 
the  neighboring  country,  to  be  kept  till  they  were  ready  to 
send  them  off  in  droves,  or  to  ship  them  to  the  South.  In 
common  with  all  the  slave-trading  gentry,  Messrs  Savage, 

*  The  slaves  in  the  United  States  are  now  nearly  two  millions  and 
a  half.  It  ought  perhaps  to  be  added,  that  by  the  federal  constitution 
the  general  government  has  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  question  of 
slavery  in  the  States.  The  legislature  of  each  State  is  the  sole  judge 
of  that  question,  within  its  own  limits.  Slavery  however,  is  still 
tolerated  within  the  District  of  Columbia,  which  includes  the  city  of 
Washington,  over  which  Congress  has  an  exclusive  right  of  legislation. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  people  of  the  free  States  will  not  be  deterred 
by  the  insolent  and  ferocious  spirit  of  the  slave-holders,  from  doing 
themselves  the  justice  to  abolish  slavery  wherever  it  is  within  their 
power.  EDITOR. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  97 

Brothers  &  Co  had  the  free  use  of  the  city  prison ;  but  this 
was  not  large  enough  for  the  scale  on  which  they  earned 
on  operations  ;  so  they  had  built  a  prison  of  their  own.  It 
was  under  the  management  of  a  regular  jailer,  and  was  very 
much  like  any  other  jail.  The  slaves  were  allowed  the 
liberty  of  the  yard  during  the  day  time;  but  at  sunset,  they 
were  all  locked  up  promiscuously  in  the  prison.  This  was 
small  and  ill-ventilated  ;  and  the  number  that  was  forced 
into  it,  was  sometimes  very  great.  While  I  was  confined 
there,  the  heat  and  stench  were  often  intolerable  ;  and 
many  a  morning,  I  came  out  of  it,  with  a  burning  thirst  and 
a  high  fever. 

The  states  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  claim  the  honor  of 
having  exerted  themselves  for  the  abolition  of  the  African 
slave-trade.  It  is  true  they  were  favorable  to  that  measure, 
— and  they  had  good  reasons  of  their  own  for  being  so. 
They  gained  the  credit  of  humanity,  by  the  same  vote  that 
secured  them  the  monopoly  of  a  domestic  trade  in  slaves, 
which  bids  fair  to  rival  any  traffic  ever  prosecuted  on  the 
coast  of  Africa.  The  African  traffic,  they  have  declared  to 
be  piracy,  while  the  domestic  slave-trade  flourishes  in  the 
heart  of  their  own  territories,  a  just,  legal  and  honorable 
commerce  ! 

The  District  of  Columbia,  which  includes  the  city  of 
Washington,  and  which  is  situated  between  the  two  states 
above  mentioned,  has  become,  from  the  convenience  of  its 
situation,  and  other  circumstances,  the  centre  of  these  slave- 
trading  operations, — an  honor  which  it  shares  however,  with 
Richmond  and  Baltimore,  the  chief  towns  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland.  The  lands  of  these  two  states  have  been  ex 
hausted  by  a  miserable  and  inefficient  system  of  cultivation, 
such  as  ever  prevails  where  farms  are  large,  and  the  laborers 
enslaved.  Their  produce  is  the  same  with  the  productions 
of  several  of  the  free  states  north  and  west  of  them  ;  and 
they  are  every  day,  sinking  faster  and  faster,  under  the 
competition  of  free  labor  to  which  they  are  exposed. 

Many  a  Virginian  planter  can  only  bring  his  revenue 

even  with  his  expenditures,  by  selling  every  year,  a  slave 

or  two.      This  practice,  jocularly,  but  at  the  same  time 

significantly  known,  as  'eating  a  negro' — a  phrase  worthy 

9 


98  MEMOIRS     OF 

of  slave-holding  humanity — is  becoming  every  day,  more 
and  more  common.  A  very  large  number  of  planters  have 
ceased  to  raise  crops  with  the  expectation  of  profit.  They 
endeavor  to  make  the  produce  of  their  lands  pay  their  cur 
rent  expenses ;  but  all  their  hopes  of  gain  are  confined  to 
the  business  of  raising  slaves  for  the  southern  market  ;  and 
that  market  is  as  regularly  supplied  with  slaves  from  Vir 
ginia,  as  with  mules  and  horses  from  Kentucky. 

But  the  slave-trade  in  America,  as  well  as  in  Africa, 
carries  with  it  the  curse  of  depopulation  ;  and,  together 
with  the  emigration  which  is  constantly  going  on,  has 
already  unpeopled  great  tracts  of  country  in  the  lower  part 
of  Virginia,  and  is  fast  restoring  the  first  seats  of  Anglo- 
American  population  to  all  their  original  wildness  and 
solitude.  Whole  counties  almost,  are  grown  up  in  useless 
and  impenetrable  thickets,  already  retenanted  by  deer  and 
other  wild  game,  their  original  inhabitants. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

WE  were  driven  into  the  prison-yard,  through  a  stout 
gate  well  studded  with  iron  nails.  The  heavy  padlocks  of 
the  prison-door  were  unfastened,  and  we  were  thrust  in, 
without  further  ceremony.  A  faint  glimmer  of  moon-light 
stole  in  at  the  narrow  and  grated  windows  of  the  prison  ; 
but  it  was  some  time  before  I  was  able  to  distinguish  one 
object  from  another.  When  at  length,  my  eyes  had  ac 
commodated  themselves  to  the  faintness  of  the  light,  I 
found  myself  crowded  into  the  midst  of  perhaps  a  hundred 
human  beings, — most  of  them  young  men  and  women 
between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty-five, — closely 
packed  on  the  bare  floor. 

A  considerable  number  started  up  at  our  entrance,  and 
began  to  crowd  about  us,  and  to  inquire  who  we  were, 
and  whence  we  came.  They  seemed  glad  of  anything  to 
break  the  monotony  of  their  confinement.  But  wearied 
and  fatigued,  we  were  in  no  humor  for  talking  ;  and  sink- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  99 

ing  down  upon  the  floor  of  our  prison,  notwithstanding  the 
poisonous  stench,  and  the  confined  and  impure  atmosphere, 
we  were  soon  buried  in  profound  slumbers.  Sleep  is  the 
dearest  solace  of  the  wretched  ;  and  there  is  this  sweet 
touch  of  mercy  in  it,  that  it  ever  closes  the  eyes  of  the 
oppressed,  more  willingly  than  those  of  the  oppressor.  I 
hardly  think  that  any  member  of  the  firm  of  Savage,  Broth 
ers  &t  Co  slept  so  soundly  that  night,  as  did  the  most 
unquiet  of  their  newly  purchased  victims. 

Day  came — the  prison-door  was  unlocked,  and  we  were 
let  out  into  the  enclosure  about  it.  The  scanty  allowance 
of  corn-bread  which  the  penuriousness  of  our  wealthy  but 
economical  masters  allowed  us,  was  doled  out  to  each.  My 
meal  finished,  I  sat  down  upon  the  ground,  and  observed 
the  scene  about  me.  With  a  few  exceptions,  the  prisoners 
were  collected  in  groups,  some  containing  two  or  three,  and 
others  a  much  larger  number.  The  men  were  more  numer 
ous  than  the  women,  though  the  females  had  received  a 
considerable  addition  from  our  party.  The  acquaintance 
of  these  new  comers  was  eagerly  sought  for,  and  they  were 
constantly  receiving  solicitations  to  enter  into  temporary 
unions,  to  last  while  the  parties  remained  together.  Most 
of  the  women  whom  we  found  in  the  prison,  had  already 
formed  connections  of  this  sort. 

These  courtships,  if  so  they  should  be  called,  were  still 
going  on,  when  a  tall  young  fellow,  with  a  very  quizical  face, 
produced  a  three-stringed  fiddle,  and  after  preluding  for  a 
few  moments,  struck  up  a  lively  tune.  The  sound  of  the 
music  soon  drew  a  large  group  about  him,  who  provided 
themselves  with  partners  and  began  a  dance.  As  the  fid 
dler  warmed  to  his  business,  he  played  faster  and  faster;  and 
the  dancers,  amidst  laughs  and  shouts  and  boisterous  merri 
ment,  did  their  best  to  keep  up  with  the  tune. 

It  is  thus  that  men,  whenever  their  natural  sources  of 
enjoyment  fail  them,  betake  themselves  to  artificial  excite 
ments.  Too  often,  we  sing  and  dance,  not  because  we  are 
merry,  but  in  the  hope  to  become  so  ;  and  merriment  itself 
is  seldomer  the  expression  and  the  evidence  of  pleasure, 
than  the  disguise  of  weariness  and  pain, — the  hollow  echo 
of  an  aching  heart. 


100  MEMOIRS    OF 

But  the  entire  company  did  not  join  the  dancers.  As  it 
happened,  it  was  Sunday ;  and  a  part  of  them  seemed  to 
entertain  conscientious  scruples  about  dancing  on  that,  and 
for  aught  I  know,  upon  any  other  day.  The  more  sober 
part  of  the  company  gradually  collected  together  in  the  op 
posite  corner  of  the  prison-yard  ;  and  a  sedate  young  man, 
with  a  handsome  and  intelligent  face,  mounted  upon  the 
head  of  an  empty  barrel  which  happened  to  be  standing 
there,  and  taking  a  hymn-book  from  his  pocket,  struck  up 
a  Methodist  psalm.  His  voice  was  sweet  and  clear,  and 
his  singing  far  from  disagreeable.  He  was  soon  joined  by 
several  others ;  and  as  the  chorus  swelled,  the  sound  of  the 
psalmody  almost  drowned  the  scraping  of  the  fiddle  and  the 
laughter  of  the  dancers.  I  observed  too,  that  several  of  the 
dancing  party,  cast  their  eyes,  from  time  to  time  wistfully 
towards  the  singers  ;  and  before  the  psalm  was  half  finished, 
several  of  the  females  had  stolen  softly  away,  and  mingled 
in  the  group  collected  about  the  preacher.  The  singing 
being  ended,  he  began  to  pray.  His  hands  were  clasped, 
and  raised,  and  he  spoke  with  a  ready  fluency,  and  a 
natural  earnestness  and  unction,  not  always  heard  from  a 
regular  clergyman  in  a  cushioned  pulpit.  Tears  ran  down 
many  a  face ;  and  sighs  and  groans  almost  drowned  the 
voice  of  the  speaker.  These  perhaps,  were  mere  practised 
responses,  as  artificial,  and  as  little  sincere,  as  the  drawl  of 
the  parish  clerk  in  the  English  church  service.  And  yet  in 
some  cases,  they  had  every  appearance  of  being  genuine 
bursts  of  natural  feeling, — an  involuntary  tribute  to  the  elo 
quence  and  fervor  of  the  speaker. 

Next  followed  the  exhortation.  The  text  was  from  Job  ; 
and  the  preacher  began  upon  the  trite  subject  of  patience. 
But  like  all  ignorant  and  illiterate  speakers,  he  soon  desert 
ed  his  original  topic,  and  ran  on  from  one  thing  to  another, 
with  very  little  of  method  or  connection.  Now  and  then, 
some  sparks  of  sense  were  struck  out ;  but  they  were  speed 
ily  quenched  in  a  flood  of  absurdity.  It  was  a  strange 
farrago ;  but  it  was  delivered  with  a  volubility,  an  earnest 
ness  and  a  force,  which  produced  a  strong  effect  upon  the 
hearers.  It  was  not  long  before  he  had  worked  them  up  to 
a  pitch  of  excitement,  which  far  surpassed  that  of  the 


ARCHY    MOORE.  101 

dancers  in  the  opposite  comer.  Indeed,  the  dancing  group 
grew  thinner  and  thinner,  and  the  squeak  of  the  fiddle 
sounded  weaker  and  weaker,  till  at  last  the  fiddler  threw 
down  his  instrument,  and  with  his  remaining  adherents 
hastened  to  swell  the  audience  of  a  performer  whose  powers 
so  much  out-matched  his  own. 

As  the  sermon  proceeded,  the  groans  and  cries  of  mercy 
and  amen,  grew  louder  and  more  frequent;  and  several, 
overcome  by  their  feelings,  or  wishing,  or  affecting  to  be  so, 
fell  flat  upon  the  ground,  and  screamed  and  shouted  as  if 
they  were  possessed  by  evil  spiiits.  So  strong  was  the 
contagion,  and  so  powerful  the  sympathetic  infectiousness 
of  this  spiritual  intoxication,  that  I,  a  mere  looker  on,  felt  a 
strong  impulse  to  rush  among  the  crowd,  and  to  shriek  and 
shout  with  the  rest.  The  paroxysm  was  now  at  its  height, 
and  the  speaker  was  almost  exhausted  by  his  vehement 
gesticulation,  when  stamping  his  foot,  with  more  than  com 
mon  energy — he  burst  in  the  head  of  the  barrel  and  tumbled 
headlong  among  his  auditors. 

This  unlucky  accident  instantly  converted  the  cries  and 
groans  of  his  hearers,  into  shouts  of  irrepressible  laughter ; 
and  they  seemed  to  pass  all  at  once,  from  a  state  of  the  ut 
most  terror  and  solemnity,  into  outrageous  and  uncontrollable 
merriment.  The  fiddler  crept  out  from  amidst  the  hurly 
burly,  caught  up  his  fiddle,  and  struck  up  a  lively  air, — I 
forget  the  name  of  it,  but  I  recollect  very  well  that  it  con 
tained  some  allusion  to  the  disaster  of  his  rival.  The  dance 
was  renewed ;  while  the  preacher,  with  a  few  of  his  more 
attached  hearers,  slunk  away  mortified  and  disheartened. 
The  dancers  grew  more  boisterous,  and  the  fiddler  played 
his  best ;  till  at  last  the  party  had  fairly  tired  themselves 
out,  and  were  too  much  exhausted  to  keep  it  up  any 
longer. 

Men  bom  and  bred  in  slavery,  are  not  men  but  children. 
Their  faculties  are  never  permitted  to  unfold  themselves ; 
and  it  is  the  aim  of  their  masters,  and  the  necessary  effect 
of  their  condition,  to  keep  them  in  a  state  of  perpetual  im 
becility.  Tyranny  is  ever  hostile  to  every  species  of  men 
tal  developement ;  for  a  state  of  ignorance  involves  of 
necessity,  a  state  of  degradation,  and  of  helplessness. 
9* 


102  MEMOIRS    OF 

I  soon  made  myself  acquainted  with  a  number  of  my 
fellow  prisoners,  and  entered  into  conversation  with  them. 
Some  of  them  had  been  in  the  jail  a  fortnight,  and  others 
longer.  I  presently  discovered  that  they  considered  their 
confinement  as  a  sort  of  holy  day.  They  had  nothing  to 
do ;  and  not  to  be  compelled  to  work  seemed,  for  them, 
the  supreme  idea  of  happiness.  As  to  being  confined  within 
the  walls  of  a  prison  ;  they  had  the  liberty  of  the  yard,  and 
it  was  just  as  agreeable  being  shut  up  within  four  brick 
walls,  as  to  be  prisoner  on  a  plantation,  forbidden  to  go  be 
yond  the  line  of  its  zig-zag  fences.  Then  they  had  no 
overseer  to  harass  them,  and  nothing  to  do  but  to  dance 
and  sleep.  Nothing  was  wanted  but  a  little  whiskey,  and 
even  that  was  not  always  wanting.  They  seemed  anxious 
to  drown  all  memory  of  the  past,  and  all  dread  of  the  fu 
ture,  and  to  bask  without  concern,  in  the  sunshine  of  their 
present  felicity. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

I  HAD  been  in  the  jail  ten  days  or  a  fortnight,  when 
Messrs  Savage,  Brothers  &,  Co  selected  from  among  their 
chattels  a  cargo  of  slaves  for  the  Charleston  market.  I  was 
one  of  the  number ;  and  with  some  fifty  others,  was  loaded 
on  board  a  small  vessel  bound  for  that  port.  The  captain's 
name  was  Jonathan  Osborne.  He  was  a  citizen  of  Boston, 
and  the  vessel,  the  brig  Two  Sallys,  belonged  to  that  port, 
and  was  the  property  of  a  rich  and  respectable  merchant. 

The  people  of  the  northern  States  of  the  American 
Union,  talk  finely  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  express 
a  very  proper  indignation  at  its  horrors.  Yet  while  the 
African  slave-trade  was  permitted,  their  merchants  carried 
it  on  ;  and  these  same  merchants  do  not  always  refuse  to 
employ  their  vessels  in  the  domestic  slave-trade,  a  traffic  not 
one  iota  less  base  and  detestable. 

Northern  statesmen  have  permitted  slavery  where  no 
constitutional  objections  prevented  them  from  abolishing  it ; 


ARCHY    MOORE.  103 

the  courts  and  lawyers  of  the  North  scrupulously  fulfil  to 
the  utmost  letter,  the  constitutional  obligation  to  restore  to 
the  Southern  master,  the  victim  who  has  escaped  his  grasp, 
and  fled  to  the  *  free  States,'  in  the  vain  hope  of  protection  ; 
whilst  the  whole  North  looks  calmly  on,  and  tamely  suffers 
the  Southern  slave-holders  to  violate  all  the  provisions  of 
that  same  constitution,  and  to  imprison,  torture,  and  put  to 
death,  the  citizens  of  the  North  without  judge  or  jury, 
whenever  they  imagine  that  such  severities  can  contribute, 
in  the  slightest  degree,  to  the  security  of  their  slave-holding 
tyranny.  Nay  more  ;  many  of  the  Northern  aristocrats,  in 
the  energy  of  their  hatred  of  democratical  equality,  seem 
almost  ready  to  envy,  while  they  affect  to  deplore,  the  con 
dition  of  their  Southern  brethren.  And  yet  the  northern 
States  of  the  Union  dare  to  assert  that  they  are  undefiled 
by  the  stain  of  slavery.  It  is  a  vain,  false  boast.  They 
are  partners  in  the  wrong.  The  blood  of  the  slave  is  on 
their  hands,  and  is  dripping  in  red  and  gory  drops,  from  the 
skirts  of  their  garments. 

Before  leaving  the  prison,  we  were  supplied  with  hand 
cuffs,  those  usual  badges  and  emblems  of  servitude,  and 
having  reached  the  wharf,  we  were  crammed  together,  into 
the  hold  of  the  vessel,  so  close  that  we  had  hardly  room  to 
move,  and  not  room  enough  either  to  lie  or  sit  with  comfort. 
The  vessel  got  under  way  soon  after  we  came  on  board, 
and  proceeded  down  the  river.  Once  or  twice  a  day,  we 
were  suffered  to  come  on  deck,  and  to  breathe  the  fresh  air 
for  a  few  minutes  ;  but  we  were  soon  remanded  to  our  dun 
geon  in  the  hold.  The  mate  of  the  vessel  seemed  to  be  a 
good  natured  young  man,  and  disposed  to  render  our  con 
dition  as  comfortable  as  possible ;  but  the  captain  was  a 
savage  tyrant,  worthy  of  the  business  in  which  he  was  en 
gaged. 

We  had  been  on  our  voyage  a  day  or  two,  and  had 
already  cleared  the  river,  and  were  standing  down  the  bay, 
when  I  became  excessively  sick.  A  burning  fever  seemed 
raging  in  my  veins.  It  was  after  sunset ;  the  hatches  were 
closed  down ;  and  the  heat  of  the  narrow  hold  in  which 
we  were  confined,  and  which  was  more  than  half  filled  up 
with  boxes  and  barrels,  became  intolerable.  I  knocked 


104  MEMOIRS    OF 

against  the  deck,  and  called  aloud  for  air  and  water.  It 
was  the  mate's  watch.  He  came  forward  to  ascertain  what 
was  the  matter,  and  bade  the  men  unfasten  the  hatches  and 
lift  me  upon  deck.  I  snatched  the  basin  of  water  which 
he  gave  me,  and  though  brackish  and  warm,  it  seemed  to  my 
feverish  taste  the  most  delicious  of  drinks.  I  drained  it  to 
the  bottom  and  called  for  more  ;  but  the  mate,  who  feared 
perhaps  that  excessive  drinking  might  aggravate  my  disor 
der,  refused  this  request.  I  wranted  air  as  much  as  water. 
This  he  did  not  refuse  me  ;  and  I  was  lying  on  the  deck, 
imbibing  at  every  pore  the  cool  breeze  of  the  evening,  when 
the  captain  came  up  the  companion-way. 

He  no  sooner  saw  the  hatches  off,  and  me  lying  on  the 
deck,  than  he  stepped  up  to  his  mate,  with  a  clinched  fist 
and  a  face  distorted  with  passion,  and  addressed  him  with 
"  How  dare  you,  sir,  take  off  the  hatches  after  sundown, 
without  my  orders  ?  " 

The  mate  attempted  an  apology,  and  began  with  saying 
that  I  was  taken  suddenly  sick,  and  had  called  for  assistance  ; 
but  without  waiting  to  hear  him  out,  the  brutal  captain 
rushed  by,  and  hitting  me  a  kick,  precipitated  me  headlong, 
into  the  hold,  upon  the  heads  of  my  companions.  Without 
stopping  to  inquire,  whether  or  not  my  neck  was  broken, 
he  bade  his  men  replace  and  secure  the  hatches.  Luckily 
I  sustained  but  little  injury  ;  though  I  came  within  an  inch 
of  having  my  skull  broken  against  one  of  the  beams.  The 
water  I  had  drank,  and  the  cool  air  I  had  breathed,  abated 
my  fever,  and  I  soon  began  to  grow  better. 

In  the  course  of  the  next  day,  we  passed  the  capes  of  the 
Chesapeake,  and  entered  the  great  Atlantic.  We  stood  to 
the  southward  and  eastward,  and  were  making  rapid  way, 
when  it  came  on  to  blow  a  furious  gale.  The  tossing  and 
pitching  of  the  ship  was  terrible  indeed  to  us  poor  prisoners, 
confined  in  the  dark  hold,  and  expecting,  at  every  burst  of 
thunder,  that  the  vessel  was  breaking  in  pieces.  The  storm 
continued  to  increase.  The  noise  and  tumult  on  deck,  the 
creaking  of  the  rigging,  the  cries  of  the  seamen,  and  the 
sound  of  cracking  spars  and  splitting  canvass,  added  to  our 
terror.  Pretty  soon,  we  found  that  the  hold  was  filling  with 
water,  and  an  alarm  was  given  that  the  vessel  had  sprung 


ARCHY   MOORE.  105 

a-leak.  The  hatches  were  opened,  and  we  were  called  on 
deck.  Our  hand-cuffs  were  knocked  off,  and  we  were  set 
to  work  at  the  pumps. 

I  could  not  tell  whether  it  were  night  or  morning ;  for 
the  gale  had  now  lasted  a  good  while,  and  since  it  began, 
we  had  not  been  suffered  to  come  on  deck.  However  it 
was  not  totally  dark.  A  dim  and  horrid  glimmer,  just  suf 
ficient  to  betray  our  situation,  and  more  terrible  perhaps 
than  total  darkness,  was  hovering  over  the  ocean.  At  a 
distance,  the  huge  black  waves,  crested  with  pale  blue  foam, 
seemed  to  move  on  like  monsters  of  the  deep ;  nor  when 
nearer,  did  they  lose  any  of  their  terrors.  Now  we  sunk 
into  a  horrid  gulf,  between  two  watery  precipices,  which 
swelled  on  either  side,  black,  and  frowning,  and  ready  to 
devour  us  ;  and  now,  lifted  on  the  top  of  a  lofty  wave,  we 
viewed  all  around,  a  wild  and  fearful  waste  of  dark  and 
stormy  waters.  It  was  a  terrible  sight  for  one  who  had 
never  seen  the  sea  before ;  and  as  I  gazed  upon  it,  half  stu 
pefied  with  terror,  little  did  I  think  that  this  same  fierce  and 
raging  element,  was  to  prove  hereafter,  my  best  and  surest 
friend  ! 

The  brig  was  almost  a  total  wreck.  Her  foremast  was 
gone  by  the  board ;  and  she  was  lying  to  on  the  starboard 
tack,  under  a  close  reefed  main-top-sail.  These  are  terms 
which,  at  that  time,  I  had  never  heard..  It  was  long  after 
wards  that  I  learned  to  use  them.  But  the  whole  scene 
remains  as  distinct  upon  my  memory  as  if  it  had  been  paint 
ed  there. 

Notwithstanding  all  our  efforts,  the  leak  gained  upon  us  ; 
and  the  captain  soon  made  up  his  mind  that  it  would  be  im 
possible  to  keep  the  vessel  afloat.  Accordingly  he  made 
his  preparations  for  quitting  her.  He  and  his  mates  were 
armed  with  swords  and  pistols ;  and  cutlasses  were  put  into 
the  hands  of  two  or  three  of  the  crew.  The  long  boat  had 
been  washed  overboard  ;  but  they  had  succeeded  in  secur 
ing  the  jolly  boat,  which  they  now  lowered  away  and 
dropped  into  the  water  under  the  vessel's  lee.  The  crew 
were  already  embarking,  before  we  well  understood  what 
they  were  about ; — but  as  soon  as  we  comprehended  that 
they  were  going  to  desert  the  ship,  we  rushed  franticly  for- 


106  MEMOIRS    OP 

ward,  and  demanded  to  be  taken  on  board.  This  they  had 
expected,  and  they  were  prepared  for  it.  Three  or  four 
pistol  shots  were  fired  among  us,  and  several  of  us  were 
severely  wounded  by  the  sailors'  cutlasses.  At  the  same 
time,  they  cried  to  us  to  stand  back,  and  they  would  take 
us  on  board  as  soon  as  all  things  were  ready.  Terrified 
and  confused,  we  stood  a  moment  doubting  what  to  do. 
The  sailors  improved  this  interval  to  jump  on  board, — 
"  Cast  off"  shouted  the  captain, — the  seamen  bent  to  their 
oars,  and  the  boat  was  fast  quitting  the  vessel,  before  we 
had  recovered  from  our  momentary  hesitation. 

We  raised  a  shout,  or  rather  a  scream  of  terror,  at  finding 
ourselves  thus  deserted  ;  and  three  or  four  poor  wretches, 
on  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  sprang  into  the  water,  in  the 
hope  of  reaching  the  boat.  All  but  one  sunk  instantly  in 
the  boiling  surge  ;  he,  a  man  of  herculean  frame,  springing 
with  all  the  effort  of  a  death-struggle,  was  carried  far  beyond 
the  rest,  and  rising  through  the  billows,  found  himself  just 
behind  the  boat.  He  ^stretched  out  his  hand  and  caught 
the  rudder.  The  captain  was  steering.  He  drew  a  pistol 
and  fired  it  at  the  head  of  the  swimmer.  We  heard  a 
scream  above  all  the  noise  of  the  tempest.  It  was  only  for 
a  moment ;  he  sunk,  and  we  saw  him  no  more. 

It  is  impossible  to  convey  any  adequate  idea  of  the  terror 
and  confusion  which  now  prevailed  on  board.  The  women, 
now  screaming,  now  praying,  were  frantic  with  fear.  Four 
or  five  poor  fellows  lay  about  the  deck  bleeding  and  des 
perately  wounded.  Death  seemed  to  ride  upon  the  storm, 
and  to  summon  his  victims.  The  vessel  still  lay  with  her 
head  to  windward  ;  but  the  spray  dashed  over  her  continu 
ally,  and  every  now  and  then,  she  shipped  a  sea  which  set 
the  decks  a-float  and  drenched  us  in  salt  water.  It  occurred 
to  me,  that  unless  the  pumps  were  kept  going,  the  vessel 
would  soon  fill  and  carry  us  to  the  bottom.  I  called  about 
me,  such  of  the  men  as  seemed  to  be  most  in  their  senses, 
and  endeavored  to  explain  to  them  our  situation ;  but  they 
were  stupefied  with  terror,  and  would  not,  or  could  not,  un 
derstand  me.  As  a  last  resource,  I  rushed  forward,  crying 
— "  Pump  my  hearties,  pump  for  your  lives."  This  was 
the  phrase  which  the  captain  and  his  mates  had  continually 


AJICHY    MOORE.  107 

repeated,  as  they  stood  over  us,  and  directed  our  labor.  The 
poor  creatures  seemed  to  obey  as  if  instinctively,  this  voice 
of  command.  They  collected  about  me  and  began  to  work 
the  pumps.  If  it  had  no  other  good  effect,  at  least  it  served 
lo  call  off  our  attention  from  the  horrors  with  which  we 
were  surrounded.  We  plied  our  work  till  one  of  the  pump? 
was  broken  and  the  other  choked  and  rendered  useless.  By 
this  time  the  storm  had  abated,  and  the  vessel,  notwithstand 
ing  all  our  fears  to  the  contrary,  still  rode  the  waves. 

It  grew  lighter  by  degrees.  Presently  the  clouds  began 
to  break  away,  and  to  drive  in  huge,  misty  masses  along 
the  sky.  Occasionally  the  sun  broke  out ;  and  after  a  con 
siderable  dispute,  whether  it  were  rising  or  setting,  we  con 
cluded  it  must  be  some  four  or  five  hours  past  sunrise. 

As  soon  as  the  women  had  recovered  from  the  first  par 
oxysm  of  their  terror,  they  gave  such  care  as  they  could,  to 
the  poor  sufferers,  who  had  been  wounded.  They  had 
bound  up  their  wounds,  and  had  collected  them  together  on 
the  quarter  deck.  One  poor  fellow  who  had  been  shot 
through  the  body  with  a  pistol  ball,  was  much  worse  hurt 
than  the  others.  His  wife  was  supporting  his  head  on  her 
lap,  and  was  trying  to  prevent  the  pitching  of  the  vessel 
from  aggravating  his  sufferings.  She  had  been  standing  by 
him,  or  rather  clinging  to  him,  at  the  moment  he  was 
wounded.  She  had  caught  him  in  her  arms  as  he  fell,  had 
dragged  him  from  the  press,  and  from  that  moment  seemed 
to  forget  all  the  horrors  of  our  situation,  in  her  incessant 
efforts  lo  soothe  his  pains.  Her  affectionate  care  had 
proved  of  little  avail.  The  struggle  was  now  almost  over, 
[n  a  little  while,  he  expired  in  her  arms.  When  she  found 
that  he  was  dead,  her  grief,  which  she  had  controlled  and 
suppressed  so  long,  burst  forth  in  all  its  energy.  Her  female 
companions  gathered  about  her, — but  the  poor  woman  was 
beyond  the  reach  of  consolation. 

Some  of  us  now  ventured  below,  and  took  the  liberty  of 
overhauling  the  steward's  stores.  Every  thing  was  more  or 
less  damaged  with  salt  water ;  but  we  lighted  upon  a  cask 
or  two  of  bread,  which  was  tolerably  dry,  and  which  suf 
ficed  to  furnish  us  a  sumptuous  repast. 

We  had  not  finished  it,  before  we  discovered  a  vessel 


108  MEMOIRS    OF 

standing  towards  us.  As  she  approached,  we  waved  frag 
ments  of  the  tattered  sails,  and  shouted  for  assistance. 
Having  run  down  pretty  near  us,  she  hove  to,  and  sent  a 
boat  on  board.  When  the  boat's  crew  had  mounted  over 
the  brig's  side,  they  seemed  utterly  amazed  at  the  scene 
which  her  decks  presented.  I  stepped  forward,  and  ex 
plained  to  the  officer  the  nature  of  our  situation  ;  that  we 
were  a  cargo  of  slaves  bound  from  Washington  to  Charles 
ton,  and  that  the  vessel  and  her  lading  had  been  deserted 
by  the  crew ;  that  contrary  to  every  expectation,  we  had 
succeeded  in  keeping  her  afloat,  but  that  the  pumps  were 
out  of  order  and  she  was  again  filling. 

The  mate  hastened  back  to  his  own  ship  and  soon  re 
turned  with  the  captain  and  the  carpenter.  After  examin 
ing  and  consulting  together,  they  determined  to  put  a  part 
of  their  own  crew  on  board  the  brig,  and  to  navigate  her 
into  Norfolk,  to  which  port  they  were  bound,  and  which 
was  the  nearest  harbor.  The  carpenter  was  put  to  work 
stopping  her  leaks  and  repairing  her  pumps.  Her  new 
crew  set  up  a  jury  foremast,  out  of  such  materials  as  they 
found  on  board.  She  was  soon  in  sailing  order,  and  they 
shook  the  reefs  out  of  her  main-top-sail  and  put  her  before 
the  wind. 

The  vessel  which  had  rescued  us,  was  the  Arethusa,  of 
New  York,  Charles  Parker,  master ;  and  lest  we  might 
need  assistance,  she  slackened  sail  and  kept  us  company. 
Before  night  we  made  the  land,  and  a  pilot  came  on  board. 
The  next  morning  we  entered  the  harbor  of  Norfolk.  The 
vessel  had  scarcely  touched  the  wharf,  before  we  were  hur 
ried  away,  and  locked  up  in  the  city  jail  for  safe  keeping. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

WE  remained  in  jail  some  three  weeks,  before  anybody 
condescended  to  inform  us  why  we  were  kept  there,  or  what 
was  to  become  of  us.  We  now  learned  that  captain  Par 
ker  and  his  crew,  had  libelled  the  Two  Sallys  and  her  cargo 


ARCHY    MOORE.  109 

for  salvage  ;  and  that  the  Court  had  ordered  the  libelled 
property  to  be  sold  at  auction,  for  the  joint  benefit  of  the 
owners  and  salvors.  This  was  all  Greek  to  us.  I  had  not 
the  most  distant  idea  what  was  meant  by  'libelling  for 
salvage,'  and  I  hardly  think  that  any  of  the  others  under 
stood  it  better  than  I.  Nobody  took  the  trouble  to  explain 
it  to  us  ;  it  was  enough  for  us  to  understand,  that  we  were 
to  be  sold  ;  the  why  and  the  wherefore,  it  was  thought  of 
no  consequence  for  slaves  to  know. 

As  I  had  already  been  twice  sold  at  public  auction,  the 
thing  had  lost  its  interest  and  its  novelty.  I  was  tired  of 
the  confinement  of  the  prison ;  and  as  I  knew  that  I  must 
be  sold  at  last,  I  was  as  ready  to  take  my  chance  now 
as  ever. 

The  sale  was  much  like  other  sales  of  slaves.  There 
was  only  one  circumstance  about  it,  that  seemed  worthy  of 
particular  notice.  The  wounded  men,  though  they  were 
not  yet  cured,  indeed  two  of  the  four  were  hardly  thought 
out  of  danger,  were  to  be  sold  among  the  rest.  "Damaged 
articles,"  the  auctioneer  observed,  "which  he  was  willing  to 
dispose  of  at  a  great  discount."  The  four  were  offered  in 
one  lot, — "  Like  so  many  broken  frying  pans,"  said  one  of 
the.  spectators,  "  but  for  my  part,  I  have  no  fancy  for  specu 
lating  either  in  broken  frying  pans,  wounded  slaves,  or  sick 
horses."  A  physician  who  was  present,  was  advised  to 
purchase.  "  If  they  should  happen  to  die,"  said  his  adviser, 
"  they  would  be  quite  useless  to  any  body  else,  but  you 
might  find  some  use  for  their  dead  bodies."  Various  other 
jests  equally  brilliant  and  pointed,  were  thrown  out  by  others 
of  the  company,  and  were  received  with  shouts  of  laughter 
that  contrasted  a  little  harshly,  with  the  sad,  woe-begono 
faces,  and  low  moans  of  the  wounded  men,  who  were 
brought  to  the  place  of  sale  on  little  pallets,  and  who  lay 
upon  the  ground,  the  very  pictures  of  sickness  and  distress. 

This  jocular  humor  had  reached  a  high  pitch,  when  it 
was  rather  suddenly  checked,  by  a  tall  fine  looking  man, 
who  had  more  the  air  and  manners  of  a  gentleman  than  the 
greater  part  of  the  company.  He  observed,  with  a  tone 
and  a  look  of  some  severity,  that  in  his  opinion,  selling  men 
upon  their  death-beds  was  no  laughing  matter.  He  imme- 
10 


1  10  MEMOIRS    OF 

diately  made  a  bid  quite  beyond  any  thing  that  had  been 
offered,  and  the  auctioneer  pronounced  him  to  be  the  pur 
chaser.  I  hoped  this  same  gentleman  might  have  purchased 
me  also ;  but  as  soon  as  he  had  given  some  directions  about 
the  removal  of  the  wounded  men,  he  left  the  place  of  sale, 
Perhaps  I  had  no  reason  to  regret  it.  This  gentleman,  for 
aught  I  could  tell,  had  acted,  as  a  hundred  other  slave- 
buyers  might  have  done,  from  a  momentary  impulse  of 
humanity,  which  disgusted  him,  it  is  true,  with  the  brutality 
of  the  rest  of  the  company,  but  which  in  all  likelihood,  was 
neither  strong  nor  steady  enough  to  render  his  treatment  of 
his  servants  much  different  from  that  of  his  neighbors. 
Such  temporary  fits  of  humanity  and  good  nai.ure,  are  occa 
sionally  felt  by  every  body ;  but  they  are  no  guarantee 
whatever,  against  an  habitual  disregard  of  the  rights  and 
feelings  of  those,  who  are  not  allowed  to  protect  themselves, 
and  who  are  protected  neither  by  the  laws  nor  by  public 
opinion. 

I  was  purchased  by  an  agent  of  Mr  James  Carleton,  of 
Carleton-Hall,  in  one  of  the  northern  counties  of  North  Car 
olina  ;  and  \vas  presently  sent  off  with  two  or  three  of  my 
companions,  for  the  plantation  of  our  new  master. 

After  a  journey  of  four  or  five  days,  we  arrived  at  Carle 
ton-Hall.  It  was  like  the  residences  of  so  many  other 
American  planters,  a  mean  house,  with  no  great  signs  about 
it,  either  of  ornament  or  comfort.  At  a  short  distance  from 
the  House,  was  the  servants'  quarter,  a  miserable  collection 
of  ruinous  cabins,  crowded  together  without  any  order,  and 
almost  concealed  in  the  vigorous  growth  of  weeds,  that 
sprung  up  around  and  among  them. 

Soon  after  our  arrival,  we  were  carried  into  the  presence 
of  our  new  master,  who  examined  us  one  by  one,  and  in 
quired  into  our  several  capabilities.  Having  learned  that  I 
had  been  raised  a  house-servant,  and  being  pleased,  as  he 
said,  with  my  manners  and  appearance,  he  told  me  he 
would  take  me  into  the  house  to  supply  the  place  of  his 
man  John,  who  had  become  so  confirmed  a  drunkard,  that 
he  had  been  obliged  to  turn  him  into  the  field. 

I  was  well  enough  pleased  with  this  arrangement ;  for  in 
general,  those  slaves  who  are  house  servants,  are  infinitely 


ARCHY    MOORE.  Ill 

better  off  than  those  who  are  employed  in  field  labor. 
They  are  better  fed,  and  better  clothed,  and  their  work  is 
much  lighter.  They  are  sure  of  the  crumbs  that  fall  from 
their  master  s  table  ;  and  as  the  master's  eyes  and  those  of 
his  guests,  would  be  offended  by  a  display  of  dirt  and  rags 
in  the  dining  room,  house  servants  are  comfortably  clothed, 
not  so  much,  it  is  true,  on  their  own  account,  as  for  the 
gratification  of  their  owner's  vanity.  As  it  is  a  matter  of 
ostentation  to  have  a  house  full  of  servants,  the  labor  be 
comes  light  when  divided  among  so  many.  Sufficient  food, 
comfortable  clothing,  and  light  work  are  not  to  be  despised ; 
hut  the  circumstance  which  principally  contributes  to  make 
i lie  condition  of  the  house  servant  more  tolerable  than  that 
of  the  field  hand,  is  of  a  different  description.  Men,  and 
especially  women  and  children,  cannot  have  any  thing 
much  about  them,  be  it  a  dog,  a  cat,  or  even  a  slave, 
without  insensibly  contracting  some  interest  in  it  and  regard 
for  it  ;  and  it  thus  happens  that  a  family  servant  often 
becomes  quite  a  favorite,  and  is  at  length  regarded  with 
a  feeling  that  bears  some  faint  and  distant  resemblance  to 
family  affection. 

This  is  the  most  tolerable — in  fact,  the  only  tolerable 
point  of  view — in  which  slavery  can  be  made  to  present 
itself;  and  it  has  been,  by  steadily  fixing  their  eyes  on  a 
few  cases  of  this  sort,  and  as  steadily  closing  them  to  all  its 
intrinsic  horrors  and  enormities,  that  some  bold  sophists 
have  mustered. courage  to  make  the  eulogium  of  slavery. 

Yet  this  best  condition  of  a  slave, — that  I  mean  of  a 
household  servant, — is  often,  almost  too  miserable  for  en 
durance.  If  there  are  kind  masters  and  good  natured 
mistresses,  it  happens  too  frequently,  that  the  master  is  a 
capricious  tyrant,  and  the  mistress  a  fretful  scold.  The 
poor  servant  is  exposed,  every  hour  of  his  life,  to  a  course 
of  harsh  rebukes,  and  peevish  chidings,  which  are  always 
threatening  to  end  in  the  torture  of  the  lash,  and  which  to  a 
person  of  any  spirit  or  sensibility,  are  more  annoying  than 
even  the  lash  itself.  And  all  this  is  without  hope  or  chance 
of  remedy.  The  master  and  the  mistress  indulge  their  bad 
humor  without  restraint.  No  fear  of  'warning'  puts  any 
curb  upon  them.  The  slave  is  theirs  ;  and  they  can  treat 


112  MEMOIRS      OF 

him  as  they  please.  He  cannot  help  himself;  and  there  is 
no  one  to  help  him. 

Mr  Carleton,  while  he  entertained  most  of  the  notions  of 
his  brother  planters,  differed  from  the  greater  part  of  them 
in  one  striking  particular.  He  was  a  zealous  presbyterian. 
and  very  warm  and  earnest,  in  the  cause  of  religion.  Had 
any  one  told  him,  that  to  hold  men  in  slavery  was  a  high 
handed  offence  against  religion  and  morality,  what  would 
have  been  his  answer  ?  Would  his  heart  have  responded 
to  the  truth  of  a  sentiment  so  congenial  to  every  more 
generous  emotion  and  better  feeling  ?  I  am  much  afraid  it 
would  not.  I  fear  he  would  have  answered  much  like 
those  of  his  brother  slave-holders,  who  made  no  pretensions 
whatever  to  peculiar  piety.  With  a  secret  consciousness  of 
his  criminality,  but  with  a  fixed  determination  never  to  ad 
mit  it,  he  would  have  worked  himself  into  a  violent  passion ; 
talked  of  the  i sacred  rights  of  property,' — more  sacred  in  a 
slave-holder's  estimation  than  either  liberty  or  justice  ;  and 
declaimed  against  impertinent  interference  in  the  affairs  of 
other  people, — a  topic,  by  the  way,  which  is  very  seldom 
much  insisted  upon,  except  by  those  whose  affairs  will 
hardly  bear  examination. 

Mr  Carleton,  though  a  zealous  presbyterian,  had,  as  I 
have  said,  most  of  the  feelings  and  notions  of  his  brother 
planters.  It  thus  happened,  that  his  character,  his  conver 
sation  and  his  conduct  were  full  of  strange  contrasts,  and 
were  forever  presenting  an  odd,  incongruous  mixture  of  the 
bully  and  the  puritan.  I  use  the  word  bully  for  want  of 
a  better,  not  exactly  in  its  most  vulgar  sense,  but  intending 
to  signify  by  it,  a  certain  spirit  of  bravado  and  violence, 
a  disposition  to  settle  every  disputed  point  by  the  pistol,  so 
common,  I  might  almost  say  universal,  in  the  southern  States 
of  America.  Mr  Carleton  with  all  his  piety,  talked  as  fa 
miliarly  of  shooting  people,  as  if  he  had  been  a  professed 
assassin. 

As  I  had  the  honor  of  waiting  upon  Mr  Carleton's  table, 
and  the  pleasure  and  advantage  of  listening  every  day  to 
his  conversation,  I  soon  came  to  understand  his  character 
perfectly, — as  perfectly  at  least  as  it  was  possible  for  any 
body  to  understand  so  very  inconsistent  a  character.  He  had 


ARCHY    MOORE.  113 

family  prayers,  night  and  morning,  with  the  most  punctilious 
regularity.  He  prayed  long  and  fervently,  and  on  his 
bended  knees.  He  was  particularly  earnest  in  his  petitions 
for  the  universal  spread  of  the  gospel  ;  he  asked  most 
devoutly,  that  as  all  men  were  creatures  of  the  same  God, 
they  might  speedily  hecome  children  of  the  same  faith. 
Yet  not  only  the  plantation  slaves  were  never  invited  to 
join  in  this  family  worship,  but  even  the  house-servant^  were 
excluded.  The  door  was  shut ; — and  at  the  very  moment 
when  the  devout  Mr  Carleton  professed  to  prostrate  himself 
in  the  dust  before  his  Creator,  he  felt  too  strongly  the  sense 
of  his  own  superiority,  to  permit  even  his  household  servants 
to  participate  in  his  devotions  ! 

But  for  all  this,  Mr  Carleton  evidently  had  the  cause  of 
religion  very  much  at  heart,  and  seemed  ready  to  spend 
and  be  spent  in  the  service.  There  were  very  few  clergy 
men  in  the  part  of  the  country  in  which  he  resided,  and  his 
zeal  frequently  led  him  to  supply  the  gap,  by  acting  as  an 
exhorter.  Indeed  there  was  scarcely  a  Sunday  that  he  did 
not  hold  forth  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood.  Within  ten 
miles  of  Carleton-Hall,  in  different  directions,  there  were  as 
many  as  three  churches,  wretched,  ruinous,  little  buildings, 
that  looked  more  like  deserted  barns  than  places  of  public 
worship.  All  of  these  Mr  Carleton  had  caused  to  be  re 
paired,  principally  at  his  own  expense,  and  in  each  of  them 
he  preached  occasionally.  But  he  did  not  consider  a 
church  as  indispensable  to  an  exhortation.  During  the 
summer,  he  frequently  held  meetings  in  some  shady  grove, 
or  by  the  side  of  some  cool  spring  ;  and  in  the  winter, 
sometimes  in  his  own  house,  and  sometimes  in  the  houses 
of  his  neighbors.  He  was  generally  pretty  sure  of  a  con 
siderable  audience.  That  part  of  the  country  was  thinly 
inhabited,  and  the  people  had  but  few  amusements.  They 
were  glad  of  any  occasion  of  assembling  together,  and 
seemed  to  care  very  little  whether  it  were  a  preaching  or 
a  frolic.  Besides,  Mr  Carleton  was  really  an  agreeable 
speaker  ;  and  the  earnestness  and  vehemence  of  his  man 
ner,  were  well  calculated  to  attract  an  audience. 

A  very  considerable  proportion  of  his  hearers  were  slaves ; 
for  though  he  did  not  judge  it  expedient  to  allow  them  to 


114  MEMOIRS    OF 

become  partakers  in  his  private  devotions,  be  had  no  objec 
tion  to  their  swelling  his  audience,  and  giving  a  sort  of 
eclat  to  his  public  performances.  Indeed,  towards  the  end 
of  his  discourses,  he  would  often  condescend  to  introduce  a 
few  sentences  for  their  particular  benefit.  The  change 
which  took  place  in  his  manner,  when  he  came  to  that  part 
of  his  sermon,  was  sufficiently  obvious.  The  phrase,  *  dear 
brethren,'  which  in  the  earlier  part  of  it,  he  was  forever 
repeating,  was  now  suddenly  dropped.  The  preacher  as 
sumed  a  condescending,  patronizing  air,  and  briefly  and  dryly 
informed  those  of  his  hearers,  'whom  God  had  appointed 
to  be  servants,'  that  their  only  hope  of  salvation  was  in  pa 
tience,  obedience,  submission,  diligence  and  subordination. 
He  warned  them  earnestly,  against  thieving  and  lying,  their 
'easily  besetting  sins;'  and  enforced  at  some  length,  the 
great  wickedness  and  folly  of  being  discontented  with  their 
condition.  All  this  was  applauded  by  the  masters  as  very 
orthodox  doctrine,  and  very  proper  to  be  preached  to  ser 
vants.  The  servants  themselves  received  it  with  an  outward 
submission,  to  which  their  hearts  gave  the  lie.  Nor  is  it 
very  strange,  considering  the  doctrines  which  he  preached 
to  them,  that  the  greater  part  of  Mr  Carleton's  converts 
among  the  slaves,  were  hypocritical  fellows,  who  made 
their  religion  a  cloak  for  their  roguery.  There  was  in  fact, 
much  truth  in  the  observation  of  one  of  Mr  Carleton's 
neighbors,  that  most  of  the  slaves,  in  that  part  of  the  coun 
try,  had  no  religion  at  all,  and  that  those  who  pretended  to 
have  any  were  worse  than  the  others.  And  how  could  it 
be  otherwise,  when  in  the  venerable  name  of  religion,  they 
had  preached  to  them  a  doctrine  of  double-distilled  tyranny, 
• — a  doctrine  which  not  content  with  now  and  then  a  human 
victim,  demanded  the  perpetual  sacrifice  of  one  half  the 
entire  community  ? 

Alas  Christianity !  What  does  it  avail, — thy  concern  for 
the  poor, — thy  tenderness  for  the  oppressed, — thy  system 
of  fraternal  love  and  affection !  The  serpent  knows  how 
to  suck  poison  from  the  harmless  nature  of  the  dove.  The 
tyrants  of  every  age  and  country,  have  succeeded  in  prosti 
tuting  Christianity  into  an  instrument  of  their  crimes,  a  terroi 
to  their  victims,  and  an  apology  for  their  oppressions !  Noi 


ARCHY    MOORE.  115 

have  they  ever  wanted  time-serving  priests  and  lying  proph 
ets,  to  applaud,  encourage,  and  sustain  them  ! 

However  little  the  slaves  might  relish  Mr  Carleton's 
doctrines, — of  which  indeed  their  own  hearts  instinctively 
made  the  refutation, — they  were  very  fond  of  attending 
upon  his  performances.  It  was  some  relief  to  the  eternal 
monotony  of  their  lives  ;  and  it  gave  them  an  opportunity 
of  getting  together  after  the  meeting  was  over,  and  having  a 
frolic  among  themselves.  This  recreation,  which  it  afforded 
to  the  servants,  was  in  my  opinion,  the  best  effect  of  Mr 
Carleton's  labors  ;  though  certain  gentlemen,  who  dreaded 
every  assembly  of  slaves,  as  a  source  of  discontent  and 
conspiracy,  were  very  earnest  in  the  condemnation  of  his 
meetings,  under  the  hypocritical  pretence  of  being  shocked 
at  the  violations  of  the  Sabbath,  of  which  they  furnished 
the  occasion  ! 

Mr  Carleton  was  president  of  a  Bible  society,  and  was 
very  anxious  and  earnest  about  the  universal  diffusion  of 
the  Bible.  I  soon  found  out  however,  that  besides  myself, 
there  was  not  a  single  slave  on  his  plantation,  nor  indeed  in 
all  the  neighborhood,  who  knew  how  to  read  :  and  what 
was  more,  I  learned  that  Mr  Carleton  was  extremely  un 
willing  to  have  any  of  them  taught. 

There  is  connected  with  this  subject,  a  point  of  view,  in 
which  the  system  of  domestic  slavery  that  prevails  in  Amer 
ica,  exhibits  itself  as  out-braving  all  other  tyrannies,  and 
betraying  a  demoniac  spirit  almost  too  horrid  to  be  thought 
of.  Mr  Carleton  believed,  and  the  immense  majority  of 
his  fellow  countrymen  believe  also,  that  the  Bible  contains 
a  revelation  from  God,  of  things  essential  to  man's  eternal 
welfare.  In  this  belief,  and  animated  by  a  lofty  spirit  of 
philanthropy,  they  have  formed  societies — and  of  one  of 
these  Mr  Carleton  was  president  ; — and  contribute  their 
money — as  Mr  Carleton  did  very  liberally — to  disseminate 
the  Bible  through  the  world,  and  to  put  this  divine  and 
unerring  guide  into  the  possession  of  every  family.  But 
while  they  are  so  zealous  to  confer  this  inestimable  treasure 
upon  all  the  world  beside,  they  sternly  withhold  it  from  those, 
of  whom  the  law  has  made  them  the  sole  guardians.  They 
withhold  it  from  their  slaves,  of  whom,  to  use  their  own 


116  MEMOIRS     OF 

hypocritical  cant,  God  has  appointed  them  the  natural  pro 
tectors  ;  and  in  so  doing,  by  their  own  confession,  they 
voluntarily  and  knowingly  expose  those  slaves,  to  the  dan 
ger  of  eternal  punishment  !  To  this  awful  danger,  they 
voluntarily  and  knowingly  expose  them,  lest,  should  they 
learn  to  read,  they  might  learn  at  the  same  time,  their  own 
rights,  and  the  means  of  enforcing  them. 

What  outrage  upon  humanity  was  ever  equal  to  this  ? 
Other  tyrannies  have  proceeded  all  lengths  against  man's 
temporal  happiness  ;  and  in  support  of  their  evil  dominion, 
have  hazarded  every  extreme  of  temporary  cruelty  ;  hut 
what  other  tyrants  are  recorded  in  all  the  world's  history, 
who  have  openly  and  publicly  confessed,  that  they  prefer 
to  expose  their  victims  to  the  imminent  danger  of  eternal 
misery,  rather  than  impart  a  degree  of  instruction,  which 
might,  by  possibility,  endanger  their  own  unjust  and  usurped 
authority  ?  Can  any  one  calmly  consider  the  cool  diabolism 
of  this  avowal,  and  believe  it  is  men  who  make  it  ?  Men 
too,  who  seem  in  other  matters,  not  destitute  of  the  common 
feelings  of  good  will ;  men  who  talk  about  liberty,  virtue, 
and  religion,  and  who  speak  even  of  justice  and  humanity ! 

Were  I  inclined  to  superstition,  1  should  believe  they 
were  not  men,  but  rather  demons  incarnate ;  evil  spirits 
who  had  assumed  the  human  shape,  and  who  falsely  put 
on  a  semblance  of  human  feelings,  in  order  the  more  secretly 
and  securely  to  prosecute  their  grand  conspiracy  against 
mankind.  I  should  believe  so,  did  I  not  know  that  the 
love  of  social  superiority,  that  very  impulse  of  the  human 
heart,  which  is  the  main-spring  of  civilization  and  the  chief 
source  of  all  human  improvement,  is  able,  when  suffered  to 
\vork  on,  uncontrolled  by  other  more  generous  emotions,  to 
corrupt  man's  whole  nature,  and  to  drive  him  to  acts  the 
most  horrid  and  detestable.  When  to  the  corruptest  form 
of  this  fierce  passion,  is  joined  a  base  fear,  at  once  cowardly 
and  cruel,  what  wonder  that  man  becomes  a  creature  to  be 
scorned  and  hated  ? — To  be  pitied  rather  ;  the  maniac  can 
hardly  be  held  accountable  for  the  enormities  to  which  his 
madness  prompts  him,  even  though  that  madness  be  self- 
created. 

However  diabolical  the  tyranny  may  be  esteemed,  which 


ARC II Y    MOORE.  117 

to  secure  its  usurped  authority,  is  ready  to  sacrifice  both  the 
temporal  and  eternal  happiness  of  its  victims,  it  is  no  doubt 
well  adapted  to  accomplish  the  end  at  which  it  aims  ; 
namely,  its  own  perpetuation.  But  it  is  necessary  to  go 
one  step  further.  The  slave-holders  ought  to  recollect, 
that  all  knowledge  is  dangerous ;  and  that  it  is  impossible 
to  give  the  slaves  any  instruction  in  Christianity,  without 
imparting  to  them  some  dangerous  ideas.  It  matters  not 
that  the  law  prohibits  the  teaching  them  to  read.  Oral 
instruction  is  as  dangerous  as  written  ;  and  the  catechism  is 
nothing  but  a  Bible  in  disguise.  Let  them  go  on  then, 
and  bring  their  work  to  a  glorious  completion.  Let  them 
prohibit  at  once,  all  religious  instruction.  They  must  come 
to  this  at  last.  Let  me  tell  them,  that  the  time  is  past,  in 
which  Mr  Carleton's  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  is  all 
that  a  religious  teacher  has  to  utter.  There  is  another 
spirit  abroad  ;  and  that  spirit  will  penetrate,  wherever  reli 
gious  instruction  opens  the  way  for  it.  Now-a-day  it  is 
impossible  to  hail  the  slave  as  a  Christian  brother,  without 
first  acknowledging  his  rights  as  a  fellow  man. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

1  HAD  not  been  long  in  Mr  Carleton's  service,  before  I 
discovered,  that  a  pretty  sure  way  of  getting  into  his  good 
graces,  was  to  be  a  great  admirer  of  his  religious  perform 
ances,  and  a  devout  attendant  upon  such  of  them  as  his 
servants  might  attend.  There  never  was  a  person  less 
inclined  by  nature  to  hypocrisy  than  myself.  But  craft 
and  cunning  are  the  sole  resource  of  a  slave  ;  and  I  had 
long  ago  learned  to  practise  a  thousand  arts,  which,  at  the 
same  time  that  I  despised  them,  I  often  found  extremely 
useful. 

For  these  arts,  I  now  had  occasion  ;  and  I  plied  my 
flattery  to  such  purpose,  that  I  soon  gained  the  good  will 
of  my  master,  and  before  long,  was  duly  established  in  the 
situation  of  confidential  servant.  This  was  a  station  of  very 


118  MEMOIRS    OF 

considerable  respectability;  anil  next  to  the  overseer,  I  was 
decidedly  the  most  consequential  person  on  the  place.  It 
was  my  duty  to  attend  specially  upon  my  master,  to  ride 
about  with  him  to  meetings,  cany  his  cloak  and  Bible,  anil 
take  care  of  his  horse  ;  for  among  other  matters  Mr  Carle- 
ton  was  a  connoisseur  in  horses,  and  he  did  not  like  to  trust 
his,  to  the  usual  blundering  negligence  of  his  neighbor."' 
grooms. 

Pretty  soon,  my  master  found  out  my  accomplishments 
of  reading  and  writing, — for  I  inadvertently  betrayed  a  secret, 
which  I  had  determined  to  keep  to  myself.  At  first  he  did 
not  seem  to  like  it ;  but  as  he  could  not  unlearn  me,  he 
soon  determined  to  turn  these  acquirements  of  mine  to  some 
account.  He  had  a  good  deal  of  writing,  of  one  sort  and 
another ;  and  lie  set  me  to  work  as  copier.  In  my  charac 
ter  of  secretary,  I  was  often  called  upon,  when  my  master 
was  busy,  to  write  passes  for  the  people.  This  raised 
my  consequence  extremely  ;  and  my  fellow  servants  soon 
began  to  look  upon  me,  as  second  only  to  '  master ' 
himself. 

Mr  Carlcton  was  naturally  humane  and  kind-hearted  ; 
and  though  his  sudden  out-breaks  of  impatience  and  fret- 
fulness  were  often  vexatious  enough,  still  if  one  humored 
him,  they  were  generally  soon  over;  and  as  if  he  reproached 
himself  for  not  keeping  a  better  guard  upon  his  temper, 
they  were  often  followed  by  an  affability  and  indulgence 
greater  than  usual.  I  soon  learned  the  art  of  managing 
him  to  the  best  advantage,  and  every  day  I  rose  in  his 
favor. 

I  had  a  good  deal  of  leisure  ;  and  I  found  means  to  em 
ploy  it  both  innocently  and  agreeably.  Mr  Carlcton  had  a 
collection  of  books  very  unusual  for  a  North  Carolina 
planter.  This  library  must  have  contained  between  two 
and  three  hundred  volumes.  It  was  the  admiration  of  all 
the  country  round ;  and  contributed  not  a  little,  to  give  its 
owner  the  character  of  a  great  scholar,  and  a  very  learned 
man.  My  situation  of  confidential  servant,  gave  me  free 
access  to  it.  The  greater  part  of  the  volumes  treated  of 
divinity,  but  there  were  some  of  a  more  attractive  descrip 
tion  ;  and  I  was  able  to  gratify  occasionally  and  by  stealth 


ARCHY    MOORE.  119 

— for  I  did  not  like  to  be  seen  reading  any  thing  but  the 
Bible — tbat  taste  for  knowledge  which  1  bad  imbibed 
\vhen  a  child,  and  which  all  the  degradations  of  servitude, 
had  not  utterly  extinguished.  All  things  considered,  1  found 
myself  much  more  agreeably  situated,  than  I  bad  been  at 
any  time  since  the  death  of  my  first  master. 

I  wish,  both  for  their  sakes  and  his  own,  that  all  the  rest 
of  Mr  Carleton's  slaves  had  been  as  well  off  and  as  kindly 
treated  as  myself.  The  house  servants,  it  is  true,  had  noth 
ing  to  complain  of;  except  indeed,  those  grievous  evils, 
which  are  inseparable  from  a  state  of  servitude,  and  which 
no  tenderness  or  indulgence  on  the  part  of  the  master,  can 
ever  do  away.  But  the  plantation  hands — some  fifty  in 
number — were  very  differently  situated.  Mr  Carleton,  like 
a  large  proportion  of  American  planters,  had  no  knowledge 
of  agriculture,  and  not  the  slightest  taste  for  it.  He  had 
never  given  any  attention  to  the  business  of  bis  plantation ; 
bis  youth  had  been  spent  in  a  course  of  boisterous  dissipa 
tion  ;  and  since  his  conversion,  he  had  been  entirely  devoted 
to  the  cause  of  religion.  Of  course  his  planting  affairs  and 
all  that  related  to  them,  were  wholly  in  the  hands  of  his 
overseer,  who  was  shrewd,  plausible,  intelligent  and  well 
•acquainted  with  his  business ;  but  a  severe  task-master,  bad 
tempered,  and  if  all  reports  were  true,  not  very  much  over 
burdened  with  honesty.  Mr  Warner,  for  this  was  the 
overseer's  name,  was  engaged  on  terms  which  however 
ruinous  to  the  planter  and  his  plantation,  were  very  common 
in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  Instead  of  receiving  a  reg 
ular  salary  in  money,  he  took  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
crop.  Of  course,  it  was  his  interest  to  make  the  largest 
crop  possible,  without  any  regard  whatever  to  the  means 
used  to  make  it.  What  was  it  to  him  though  the  lands 
were  exhausted,  and  the  slaves  worn  out  with  heavy  tasks 
and  unreasonable  labors?  He  owned  neither  the  lands  nor 
tbe  slaves,  and  if  in  ten  or  twelve  years, — and  for  some 
thing  like  that  time  he  had  been  established  at  Carleton- 
Hall, — he  could  scourge  all  their  value  out  of  them,  the 
gain  was  his,  and  the  loss  would  be  his  employer's.  This 
desirable  consummation,  he  seemed  pretty  nearly  arrived 
at.  The  lands  at  Carleton-IIall,  were  never  cultivated,  it 


120  MEMOIRS     OF 

is  likely,  with  any  tolerable  skill ;  but  Mr  Warner  had  car 
ried  the  process  of  exhaustion  to  its  last  extremity.  Field 
after  field  had  been  'turned  out '  as  they  call  it — that  is,  left 
uncultivated  and  unfenced,  to  grow  up  with  broom-sedge 
and  persimmon  bushes,  and  be  grazed  by  all  the  cattle  of 
the  neighborhood.  Year  after  year,  new  land  had  been 
opened,  and  exposed  to  the  same  exhausting  process,  which 
had  worn  out  the  fields  that  had  been  already  abandoned  : — 
till  at  last,  there  was  no  new  land  left  upon  the  plantation. 

Mr  Warner  now  began  to  talk  about  throwing  up  his  em 
ployment  ;  and  it  was  only  by  urgent  solicitations,  and  a 
greater  proportion  of  the  diminished  produce,  that  Mr  Carle- 
ton  had  prevailed  upon  him  to  remain  another  year. 

But  it  was  not  the  land  only,  that  suffered.  The  slaves 
were  subjected  to  a  like  process  of  exhaustion  ;  and  what 
with  hard  work,  insufficient  food,  and  an  irregular  and  ca 
pricious  severity,  they  had  become  discontented,  sickly  and 
inefficient.  There  never  was  a  time  that  two  or  three  of 
them,  and  sometimes  many  more,  were  not  runaways,  wan 
dering  in  the  woods ;  and  hence  originated  further  troubles, 
and  fresh  severity. 

Mr  Carleton  had  expressly  directed,  that  his  servants 
should  receive  an  allowance  of  corn,  and  especially  of  meat, 
which  in  that  part  of  the  world  was  thought  extremely 
liberal ;  and  I  believe,  if  the  allowance  had  been  faithfully 
distributed,  the  heartiest  man  upon  the  place  would  have 
received  about  half  as  much  meat  as  was  consumed  by  Mr 
Carleton's  youngest  daughter,  a  little  girl  some  ten  or  twelve 
years  old.  But  if  the  slaves  were  worthy  of  belief,  neither 
Mr  Warner's  scales  nor  his  measure  were  very  authentic  ; 
and  according  to  their  story,  so  much  as  he  could  plunder 
out  of  their  weekly  allowance,  went  to  increase  his  share  in 
the  yearly  produce  of  the  plantation. 

Once  or  twice,  complaints  of  this  sort  had  been  carried 
to  Mr  Carleton  ;  but  without  deigning  to  examine  into 
them,  he  had  dismissed  them  as  unworthy  of  notice.  Mr 
Warner,  he  said,  was  an  honest  man  and  a  Christian, — in 
deed  it  was  his  Christian  character  that  had  first  recom 
mended  him  to  his  employer ; — and  these  scandalous  stories 
were  only  invented  out  of  that  spite  which  slaves  always 


ARCHY    MOORE.  121 

feel  against  an  overseer,  who  compels  them  to  do  their  duty. 
It  might  be  so  ;  I  cannot  undertake  positively  to  contradict 
it.  Yet  I  know  that  these  imputations  upon  Mr  Warner's 
honesty  were  not  confined  to  the  plantation,  but  circulated 
pretty  freely  through  the  neighborhood  ;  and  if  he  was  not 
a  rogue,  Mr  Carleton,  by  an  unlimited,  unsuspicious  and 
unwise  confidence,  did  his  best  to  make  him  so. 

Whether  the  slaves  were  cheated  or  not,  of  their  allow 
ance,  there  is  no  dispute  that  they  were  worked  hard,  and 
harshly  treated.  Mr  Carleton  always  took  sides  with  his 
overseer,  and  was  in  the  habit  of  maintaining  that  it  was 
impossible  to  get  along  on  a  plantation  without  frequent 
whipping  and  a  good  deal  of  severity  ;  and  yet,  as  he  was 
naturally  good  natured,  it  gave  him  pain  to  hear  of  any 
very  flagrant  instance  of  it.  But  he  was  much  from  home ; 
and  that  kept  him  ignorant,  to  a  great  degree,  of  what  was 
going  on  there ;  and  for  the  rest,  the  overseer  was  anxious 
to  save  his  feelings,  and  had  issued  very  strict  orders,  which 
he  enforced  with  merciless  severity,  that  nobody  should  run 
to  the  House  with  tales  of  what  was  done  upon  the  planta 
tion.  By  this  ingenious  device,  though  a  very  common 
one,  Mr  Warner  had  every  thing  in  his  own  way.  In  fact, 
Mr  Carleton  had  as  little  control  over  his  plantation  as  over 
any  other  in  the  county ;  and  he  knew  just  as  little 
about  it. 

When  my  master  was  a  young  man,  he  had  betted  at 
horse-races  and  gambling-tables,  and  spent  money  very 
freely  in  a  thousand  foolish  ways.  Since  he  had  grown 
religious  he  had  dropped  these  expenses,  but  he  had  fallen 
into  others.  It  was  no  small  sum  that  he  spent  every 
year,  upon  Bibles,  church  repairs,  and  other  pious  objects. 
For  several  years  his  income  had  been  diminishing  ;  but 
without  any  corresponding  diminution  of  his  expenses.  As 
a  natural  consequence,  he  had  become  deeply  involved  in 
debt.  His  overseer  had  grown  rich,  while  he  had  been 
growing  poor.  His  lands  and  slaves  were  mortgaged,  and 
he  began  to  be  plagued  by  the  sheriff's  officer.  But  these 
perplexities  did  not  cause  him  to  forego  his  spiritual  la 
bors,  which  he  prosecuted,  if  possible,  more  diligently 
than  before. 

11 


122  MEMOIRS    OF 

I  had  now  been  living  with  him  some  six  or  seven 
months,  and  was  completely  established  in  his  favor,  when 
one  Sunday  morning,  we  set  off  together  for  a  place  about 
eight  miles  distant,  where  he  had  not  preached  before,  since 
I  had  been  in  his  service.  The  place  appointed  for  the 
meeting,  was  in  the  open  air.  It  was  a  pretty  place  though, 
and  well  adapted  to  the  purpose,  being  a  gentle  swell  of 
ground  over  which  were  thinly  scattered  a  number  of 
ancient,  and  wide-spreading  oaks.  Their  outstretched  limbs 
formed  a  thick  shade,  under  which  there  were  neither  weeds 
nor  undergrowth,  but  something  more  like  a  grassy  lawn, 
than  is  often  to  be  seen  in  that  country.  Near  the  top  of 
the  swell,  somebody  had  fixed  up  some  rude  benches  ;  and 
partly  supported  against  one  of  the  largest  trees,  was  a 
misshapen  little  platform,  with  a  chair  or  two  upon  it. 
which  seemed  intended  for  the  pulpit. 

Quite  a  troop  of  horses,  and  as  many  as  ten  or  twelve 
carriages,  were  collected  at  the  foot  of  the  swell ;  and  the 
benches  were  already  occupied  by  a  considerable  number 
of  people.  The  white  hearers  however,  were  far  outnum 
bered  by  the  slaves,  who  were  scattered  about  in  groups, 
most  of  them  in  their  Sunday  dresses,  and  many  of  them 
very  decent  looking  people.  A  few  however,  were  miser 
ably  ragged  and  dirty  ;  and  there  was  quite  a  number  of 
half-grown  children  from  the  adjoining  plantations,  with 
out  a  rag  to  hide  their  nakedness. 

My  master  seemed  well  pleased  with  the  prospect  of  so 
large  an  audience.  He  dismounted  at  the  foot  of  the  hill, 
if  a  rise  so  gentle  deserved  the  name,  and  delivered  his 
horse  into  my  charge.  I  sought  out  a  convenient  place 
in  which  to  tie  the  horses  ;  and  as  I  knew  the  services 
would  not  begin  immediately,  I  sauntered  about,  looking  at 
the  equipages  and  the  company.  While  I  was  occupied  in 
this  way,  a  smart  carriage  drove  up.  It  stopped.  A  ser 
vant  jumped  from  behind,  opened  the  door  and  let  down 
the  steps.  An  elderly  lady,  and  another  about  eighteen  or 
twenty,  occupied  the  back  seat.  On  the  front  seat,  was  a 
woman  whom  I  took  to  be  their  maid,  though  I  could  not 
see  her  distinctly.  Something  called  off  my  attention  and 
il  turned  another  wav.  When  I  looked  again,  the  two 


ARCHY   MOORE.  123 

ladies  were  walking  up  the  hill  and  the  maid  was  on  the 
ground,  with  her  back  towards  me,  taking  something  from 
the  carriage.  A  moment  after,  she  turned  round,  and  I 
knew  her.  It  was  Gassy, — it  was  my  wife. 

I  sprang  forward  and  caught  her  in  my  arms.  She 
recognized  me  at  the  same  moment ;  and  uttering  a  cry  of 
surprise  and  pleasure,  she  would  have  fallen  had  I  not 
supported  her.  She  recovered  herself  directly,  and  bade 
me  let  her  go,  for  she  had  been  sent  back  for  her  mistress's 
fan,  and  she  must  make  haste  and  carry  it  to  her.  She 
told  me  to  wait  though,  for  if  she  could  get  leave,  she 
would  come  back  again  immediately.  She  tripped  up  the 
hill,  and  overtook  her  mistress.  I  could  see  by  her  ges 
tures,  the  eagerness  with  which  she  urged  her  request.  It 
was  granted  ;  and  in  a  moment  she  was  again  at  my  side. 
Again  I  pressed  her  to  my  bosom,  and  again  she  returned 
my  embrace.  Once  more  I  felt  what  it  was  to  be  happy. 
1  took  her  by  the  hand  and  led  her  to  a  little  wood,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  road.  Here  was  a  thick  young  growth 
where  we  could  sit,  screened  from  observation.  We  sat 
down  upon  a  fallen  tree  ;  and  while  I  held  her  hands  fast 
locked  in  mine,  we  asked  and  answered  a  thousand  ques 
tions.  My  history,  since  our  separation,  has  been  told 
already.  Here  follows  a  summary  of  hers. 


END    OF   VOL.   I. 


THE 


SLAVE: 


OR 


MEMOIRS   OF  ARCHY   MOORE. 


Leave  wringing  of  your  hands ;  Peace ;  sit  you  down; 

And  let  me  wring  your  heart ;  for  so  I  shall, 
If  it  be  made  of  penetrable  stuff; 
If  damned  custom  hath  not  brazed  it  so, 
That  it  be  proof  and  bulwark  against  sense. 

HAMLET 


SEVENTH   EDITION. 

TWO    VOLUMES   IN   ONE, 

VOL.  II. 


BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED   BY   BELA    MARSH, 

No.   25    CORNHILL. 

1848. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1840, 

BY   RICHARD   HILDRETH, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


MEMOIRS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

IT  seemed  to  be  with  the  greatest  reluctance,  that  the 
poor  girl  carried  back  her  recollection  to  that  terrible  day 
which  had  separated  us,  as  we  then  thought,  forever.  She 
hesitated, — and  seemed  half  ashamed,  and  almost  unwilling 
to  speak  of  what  had  followed  after  that  separation.  I 
pitied  her ;  and  great  as  was  my  curiosity — if  my  feelings 
on  that  occasion  deserve  so  trifling  a  name — I  could  almost 
have  wished  her  to  pass  over  the  interval  in  silence.  Dis 
tressing  doubts  and  dreadful  apprehensions  crowded  upon 
me,  and  I  almost  dreaded  to  hear  her  speak.  But  she  hid 
her  face  in  my  bosom,  and  murmuring  in  a  voice  half 
Choked  with  sobs,  "  My  husband  must  know  it," — she 
began  her  story. 

She  was  already,  she  told  me,  more  than  half  dead  with 
fright  and  horror,  and  the  first  blow  that  colonel  Moore 
struck,  beat  her  senseless  to  the  ground.  When  she  came 
to  her  senses,  she  found  herself  lying  on  a  bed,  in  a  room 
which  she  did  not  recollect  ever  to  have  seen  before.  She 
rose  from  the  bed  as  well  as  her  bruises  would  allow  her; 
for  she  did  not  move  without  difficulty.  The  room  was 
prettily  furnished  ;  the  bed  was  hung  with  curtains,  neat 
and  comfortable ;  a  dressing  table  stood  in  one  corner ;  and 
there  was  all  the  usual  furniture  of  a  lady's  bed-chamber, 
— but  it  was  not  like  any  room  in  the  house  at  Spring- 
Meadow. 


4  MEMOIRS    OF 

She  tried  to  open  the  doors,  of  which  there  were  two,  but 
both  were  fastened.  She  endeavored  to  get  a  peep  from 
the  windows,  in  the  hope  that  she  might  know  some  part 
of  the  prospect.  But  she  could  only  discover  that  the 
house  seemed  to  be  surrounded  by  trees  ;  for  the  windows 
were  guarded  on  the  outside  by  close  blinds,  which  were 
fastened  in  some  way  she  did  not  understand,  so  that  she 
could  not  open  them.  This  fastening  of  the  doors  and 
windows,  satisfied  her  that  she  was  held  a  prisoner,  and 
confirmed  all  her  worst  suspicions. 

As  she  passed  by  the  dressing  table,  she  caught  a  look 
at  the  glass.  Her  face  was  deadly  pale  ;  her  hair  fell  in 
loose  disorder  over  her  shoulders,  and  looking  down,  she 
saw  stains  of  blood  upon  her  dress, — but  whether  her  own 
or  her  husband's  she  could  not  tell.  She  sat  down  on  the 
bedside  ;  her  head  was  dizzy  and  confused,  and  she  scarce 
ly  knew  whether  she  were  awake  or  dreaming. 

Presently  one  of  the  doors  opened,  and  a  woman  entered. 
It  was  Miss  Ritty,*  as  she  was  called  among  the  servants 
at  Spring-Meadow,  a  pretty,  dark-complexioned  damsel, 
who  enjoyed  at  that  time,  the  station  and  dignity  of  colonel 
Moore's  favorite.  Cassy's  heart  beat  hard,  while  she  heard 
some  one  fumbling  at  the  lock.  When  the  door  opened 
she  was  glad  to  see  that  it  was  only  a  woman,  and  one 
whom  she  knew.  She  ran  towards  her,  caught  her  by  the 
hand,  and  begged  her  protection.  The  girl  laughed,  and 
asked  what  she  was  afraid  of.  Gassy  hardly  knew  what 
answer  to  make.  After  hesitating  a  moment,  she  begged 
Miss  Ritty  to  tell  her  where  she  was,  and  what  they  intend 
ed  to  do  with  her. 

"  It  is  a  fine  place  you're  in,"  was  the  answer,  "  and 
when  master  comes,  you  can  ask  him  what  is  to  be  done 
with  you."  This  was  said  with  a  significant  titter,  which 
Cassy  knew  too  well  how  to  interpret. 

Though  Miss  Ritty  had  evaded  a  direct  answer  to  her 
inquiry,  it  now  occurred  to  her  where  she  must  be.  This 
woman,  she  recollected,  occupied  a  small  house — the 
same  that  once  had  been  inhabited  by  Cassy's  mother  and 
by  mine, — at  a  considerable  distance  from  any  other  on 

*  Henrietta. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  5 

the  plantation.  It  was  surrounded  by  a  little  grove  which 
almost  hid  it  from  view,  and  was  very  seldom  visited  by 
uny  of  the  servants.  Miss  Ritty  looked  upon  herself,  and 
was  in  fact  regarded  by  the  rest  of  us,  as  a  person  of  no 
little  consequence  ;  and  though  she  sometimes  condescend 
ed  to  make  visits,  she  was  not  often  anxious  to  have  them 
returned.  Gassy,  however,  had  been  once  or  twice  at  her 
house.  There  were  two  little  rooms  in  front,  into  which  she 
was  freely  admitted ;  but  the  apartment  behind  was  locked  ; 
and  it  was  whispered  among  the  servants,  that  colonel  Moore 
kept  the  key,  so  that  even  Miss  Ritty  herself  did  not  enter 
it  except  in  his  company.  This  perhaps  was  mere  scan 
dal  ;  but  Gassy  recollected  to  have  noticed  that  the  windows 
of  this  room  were  protected  against  impertinent  curiosity, 
by  close  blinds  on  the  outside ;  and  she  no  longer  doubted 
where  she  was. 

She  told  Miss  Ritty  as  much,  and  inquired,  if  her  mis 
tress  knew  of  her  return. 

Miss  Ritty  could  not  tell. 

She  asked  if  her  mistress  had  got  another  maid  in  her 
place. 

Miss  Ritty  did  not  know. 

She  begged  for  permission  to  go  and  see  her  mistress ; 
but  that,  Miss  Ritty  said,  was  impossible. 

She  requested  that  her  mistress  might  be  told  where  she 
was ;  and  that  she  wished  very  much  to  see  her. 

Miss  Ritty  said  that  she  would  be  glad  to  oblige  her,  but 
she  was  not  much  in  the  habit  of  going  to  the  House,  and 
the  last  time  she  was  there,  Mrs  Moore  had  spoken  to  her 
so  spitefully,  that  she  was  determined  never  to  go  again, 
unless  she  were  absolutely  obliged  to. 

Having  thus  exhausted  every  resource,  poor  Gassy  threw 
herself  upon  the  bed,  hid  her  face  in  the  bedclothes,  and 
sought  relief  in  tears. 

It  was  now  Miss  Ritty 's  turn.  She  patted  the  poor  girl 
on  the  shoulder,  bade  her  not  be  down-hearted,  and  un 
locking  a  bureau  which  stood  in  the  room,  she  took  out  a 
dress  which  she  pronounced  to  be  "mighty  handsome." 
She  bade  Gassy  get  up  and  put  it  on,  for  her  master  would 
be  coming  presently.  This  was  what  Gassy  feared  ;  but 
1  * 


D  MEMOIRS    OF 

she  hoped,  if  she  could  not  escape  the  visit,  at  least  to  defer 
it.  So  she  told  Miss  Ritty  that  she  was  too  sick  to  see  any 
body ;  she  absolutely  refused  to  look  at  her  dresses,  and 
begged  to  be  allowed  to  die  in  peace.  Miss  Ritty  laughed 
when  she  spoke  of  dying  ;  yet  she  seemed  a  little  alarmed 
at  the  idea  of  it,  and  inquired  what  was  the  matter. 

Cassy  told  her  that  she  had  seen  and  suffered  enough 
that  day,  to  kill  any  body  ;  that  her  head  was  sick  and  her 
heart  was  broken,  and  the  sooner  death  came  to  her  relief 
the  better.  She  then  mustered  courage  to  mention  my 
name,  and  endeavored  to  discover  what  had  become  of  me. 
Miss  Ritty  again  shook  her  head  and  declared  that  she 
could  give  no  information. 

At  that  moment  the  door  opened,  and  colonel  Moore 
came  in.  He  had  a  haggard  and  guilty  look.  The  flush 
which  overspread  his  face,  when  she  had  last  seen  him. 
was  wholly  gone  ;  his  countenance  was  pale  and  ghastly. 
She  had  never  seen  him  look  so  before,  and  she  trembled  at 
the  sight  of  him.  He  bade  Ritty  begone  ;  but  told  her  to 
wait  in  the  front  room  as  perhaps  he  might  need  her  assist 
ance.  He  bolted  the  door,  and  sat  down  on  the  bed  by 
Cassy 's  side.  She  started  up  in  terror,  and  retired  to  the 
farthest  corner  of  the  room.  He  smiled  scornfully,  and 
bade  her  come  back,  and  sit  down  beside  him.  She  obey 
ed  ; — for  however  reluctant,  she  could  do  no  better.  He 
took  her  hand,  and  threw  one  arm  about  her  waist.  Again 
she  shrank  from  him,  and  would  have  fled ;  but  he  stamped 
his  foot  impatiently,  and  in  a  harsh  tone,  bade  her  be  quiet. 

For  a  moment  he  was  silent-; — then  changing  his  manner, 
he  summoned  up  his  habitual  smile,  and  began  in  that  mild, 
gentle,  insinuating  tone,  in  which  he  was  quite  unsurpassed. 
He  plied  her  with  flattery,  soft  words  and  generous  prom 
ises.  He  reproached  her,  but  without  any  harshness,  for 
her  attempts  to  evade  the  kindness  he  intended  her. 
He  then  spoke  of  me  ;  but  no  sooner  had  he  entered  on 
that  subject,  than  his  voice  rose,  his  face  became  flushed 
again,  and  he  seemed  in  manifest  danger  of  losing  his 
temper. 

She  interrupted  him,  and  besought  him  to  tell  her  how  I 
did  and  what  had  become  of  me.  He  answered  that  I  was 


ARCHY    MOORE.  7 

well  enough  ;  much  better  than  I  deserved  to  be  ;  but  she 
need  give  herself  no  further  thought  or  trouble  on  that  score, 
for  he  intended  to  send  me  out  of  the  country  as  soon  as  I 
was  able  to  travel ;  and  she  need  not  hope  nor  expect  ever 
to  see  me  again. 

She  most  earnestly  besought  and  begged  that  she  might 
be  sent  off  and  sold  with  me.  He  affected  to  be  greatly 
surprised  at  this  request,  and  inquired  why  she  made  it. 
She  told  him,  that  after  all  that  had  happened,  it  were 
better  that  she  should  not  live  any  longer  in  his  family  ; 
beside,  if  she  were  sold  at  the  same  time,  the  same  person 
might  buy  her  that  bought  her  husband.  That  word,  hus 
band,  put  him  into  a  violent  passion.  He  told  her  that  she 
had  no  husband,  and  wanted  none ;  for  he  would  be  better 
than  a  husband  to  her.  He  said  that  he  was  tired  of  her 
folly,  and  with  a  significant  look,  he  bade  her  not  be  a 
fool,  but  to  leave  off  whining  and  crying,  be  a  good  girl, 
and  do  as  her  master  desired ;  was  it  not  a  servant's  duty 
to  obey  her  master  ? 

She  told  him  that  she  was  sick  and  wretched,  and  begged 
him  to  leave  her.  Instead  of  doing  so,  he  threw  his  arms 
about  her  neck,  and  declared  that  her  being  sick  was  all 
imagination,  for  he  had  never  seen  her  look  half  so  hand 
some. 

She  started  up ; — but  he  caught  her  in  his  arms,  and 
dragged  her  towards  the  bed.  Even  at  that  terrible  mo 
ment,  her  presence  of  mind  did  not  forsake  her.  She  ex 
erted  her  strength,  and  succeeded  in  breaking  away  from 
his  hateful  embraces.  Then  summoning  up  all  her  ener 
gies,  she  looked  him  in  the  face,  as  well  as  her  tears  would 
allow  her,  and  striving  to  command  her  voice,  "  Master, — 
Father!"  she  cried,  "what  is  it  you  would  have  of  your 
own  daughter  ? " 

Colonel  Moore  staggered  as  if  a  bullet  had  struck  him. 
A  burning  blush  overspread  his  face  ;  he  would  have  spoken, 
but  the  words  seemed  to  stick  in  his  throat.  This  confu 
sion  was  only  for  a  moment.  In  an  instant,  he  recovered 
his  self-possession,  and  without  taking  any  notice  of  her  last 
appeal,  he  merely  said,  that  if  she  were  really  siclc,  he  did 
not  wish  to  trouble  her.  With  these  words  he  unbolted  the 
door,  and  walked  out  of  the  room. 


8  MEMOIRS    OF 

She  heard  him  talking  with  Miss  Ritty ;  and  he  had 
been  gone  but  a  few  moments,  before  she  entered.  She 
began  with  a  long  string  of  questions  about  what  colonel 
Moore  had  said  and  done ;  but  when  Gassy  did  not  seem 
inclined  to  give  her  any  answer,  she  laughed,  and  thanked 
her,  and  told  her  she  need  not  trouble  herself,  for  she  had 
been  peeping  and  listening  at  the  key-hole,  the  whole  time. 
She  said,  she  could  not  imagine,  why  Cassy  made  such  a 
fuss.  In  a  very  young  girl  it  might  be  excusable ;  but  in 
one  as  old  as  she  was,  and  a  married  woman  too,  she  could 
not  understand  it.  Such  is  the  morality,  and  such  the 
modesty  to  be  expected  in  a  slave ! 

The  poor  girl  was  in  no  humor  for  controversy ;  so  she 
listened  to  this  ribaldry  without  making  any  answer  to  it. 
Yet  even  at  that  moment,  a  faint  ray  of  hope  began  to  dis 
play  itself.  It  occurred  to  her,  that  if  Miss  Ritty  could  be 
made  sensible  of  the  risk  she  ran  in  aiding  to  create  herself 
a  rival,  she  would  not  be  pleased  at  the  prospect  of  being 
perhaps  supplanted  in  a  situation,  which  she  seemed  to  find 
so  very  agreeable.  This  idea  appeared  to  offer  some  chance 
of  gaining  over  Miss  Ritty  to  aid  her  in  escaping  from 
Spring-Meadow ;  and  at  once,  she  resolved  to  act  upon  it. 
It  was  necessary  to  be  cautious  and  to  feel  her  way,  lest  by 
piquing  the  girl's  pride,  she  might  deprive  herself  of  all  the 
advantage  to  be  gained  from  working  upon  her  fears. 

She  approached  the  subject  gradually,  and  soon  placed 
it  in  a  light,  in  which,  it  was  plain,  her  companion  had 
never  viewed  it.  When  it  was  first  suggested  to  her,  she 
expressed  a  deal  of  confidence  in  her  own  beauty,  and  af 
fected  to  have  no  fears ;  yet  it  soon  became  obvious,  that 
notwithstanding  all  her  boasting,  she  was  a  good  deal 
alarmed.  Indeed  it  was  quite  impossible  for  her,  to  look 
her  anticipated  rival  in  the  face,  and  not  to  perceive  the 
danger.  Cassy  was  well  pleased  to  see  the  effect  of  her 
suggestions ;  and  began  to  entertain  some  serious  hopes  of 
once  more  making  her  escape. 

It  was,  to  be  sure,  a  miserable,  and  most  probably  ar; 
ineffectual  resource,  this  running  away.  But  what  else 
could  she  do  ?  What  other  hope  was  there  of  escaping  a 
fate  which  all  her  womanly  and  all  her  religious  feelings 


ARCHY    MOORE.  9 

taught  her  to  regard  with  the  utmost  horror  and  detestation  ? 
This  was  her  only  chance ;  she  would  try  it,  and  trust  in 
God's  aid  to  give  her  endeavors  a  happy  issue. 

She  now  told  Miss  Ritty  distinctly,  how  she  felt,  what 
she  intended,  and  what  assistance  she  wanted.  Her  new 
confederate  applauded  her  resolution.  "  Certainly,  if  colonel 
Moore  was  really  her  father,  that  did  make  a  difference ; 
and  her  being  a  Methodist  might  help  to  account  for  her 
feelings,  for  she  knew  that  sort  of  folks  were  mighty  strict 
in  all  their  notions." 

But  though  Miss  Ritty  was  ready  enough  to  encourage 
and  applaud,  she  seemed  very  reluctant  to  take  any  active 
part  in  aiding  and  abetting  an  escape,  which  though  ap 
parently  it  tended  to  promote  her  interests,  might  end,  if 
her  agency  in  it  were  discovered,  in  bringing  her  into  danger 
and  disgrace. 

Several  plans  were  talked  over,  but  Miss  Ritty  had  some 
objection  to  all  of  them.  She  preferred  any  thing  to  the  risk 
of  being  suspected  by  her  master,  of  plotting  to  defeat  his 
wishes.  As  they  found  great  difficulty  in  fixing  upon  any 
feasible  plan,  it  was  agreed  at  last,  in  order  to  gain  time,  to 
give  out  that  Gassy  was  extremely  sick.  This  indeed  was 
hardly  a  fiction ; — for  nothing  but  the  very  critical  nature 
of  her  situation  had  enabled  the  poor  girl  to  sustain  herself 
against  the  shocks  and  miseries  of  the  last  four  and  twenty 
hours.  Ritty  undertook  to  persuade  her  master,  that  the 
best  thing  he  could  do,  was  to  let  her  alone  till  she  got 
better.  She  would  promise  to  take  her  into  training  in  the 
mean  time,  and  was  to  assure  colonel  Moore,  that  she  did 
not  doubt  of  being  soon  able  to  convince  her,  that  it  was 
both  her  interest  and  her  duty,  to  comply  with  her  master's 
wishes. 

So  far  things  went  extremely  well.  They  had  hardly 
arranged  their  plan,  before  they  heard  colonel  Moore's  step 
in  the  outer  room.  Ritty  ran  to  him,  and  succeeded  in 
persuading  him  to  go  away  without  any  attempt  to  see 
Gassy.  He  commended  her  zeal,  and  promised  to  be 
governed  by  her  advice.  The  next  day  a  circumstance 
happened  which  neither  Gassy  nor  Ritty  had  anticipated, 
but  which  proved  very  favorable  to  their  design.  Colonel 


10  MEMOIRS    OF 

Moore  was  obliged  to  set  off  for  Baltimore,  without  delay. 
Some  pressing  call  of  business,  made  his  immediate  depart 
ure  indispensable.  Before  setting  out,  however,  he  found 
time  to  visit  Ritty.  and  to  enjoin  upon  her  to  keep  a  watch 
ful  eye  upon  Gassy,  and  to  take  care  and  bring  her  to  her 
senses,  before  his  return. 

If  Gassy  was  to  escape  at  all,  now  was  the  time.  She 
soon  hit  upon  a  scheme.  Her  object  was,  to  screen  Ritty 
from  suspicion  as  much  as  to  favor  her  own  flight.  Luckily 
the  same  arrangement  might  be  made  to  accomplish  both 
purposes.  Gassy  could  only  escape  through  the  door,  or 
out  of  the  windows.  Escaping  through  the  door  was  out 
of  the  question,  because  Ritty  had  the  key  of  it,  and  was 
supposed  to  be  sleeping,  or  watching,  or  both  together,  in 
the  front  room.  The  escape  then  must  be  by  the  windows. 
These  did  not  lift  up  as  is  commonly  the  case,  but  opened 
upon  hinges  on  the  inside.  The  blinds  by  which  they 
were  guarded  on  the  outside  were  slats  nailed  across  the 
window-frames  and  not  intended  to  be  opened.  These 
must  be  cut  or  broken  ;  and  as  they  were  of  pine,  this  was 
a  task  of  no  great  difficulty.  Ritty  brought  a  couple  of 
table  knives,  and  assisted  in  cutting  them  away, — though 
according  to  the  story  she  was  to  tell  her  master,  she  was 
sleeping  all  the  time,  most  soundly  and  unsuspiciously,  and 
Gassy  must  have  secretly  cut  away  the  slats  with  a  pocket- 
knife. 

Early  in  the  evening  of  colonel  Moore's  departure,  every 
thing  was  ready,  and  Gassy  was  to  sally  forth  as  soon  as 
she  dared  to  venture.  Ritty  agreed  not  to  give  any  notice 
of  her  escape  till  late  the  next  day.  This  delay  she  could 
account  for  by  the  plea  of  not  being  able  to  find  the  over 
seer,  and  by  a  pretended  uncertainty  as  to  whether  it  would 
be  colonel  Moore's  wish,  that  the  overseer  should  be  in 
formed  at  all  about  the  matter.  At  all  events,  they  hoped 
that  no  very  vigorous  pursuit  would  be  made  until  colonel 
Moore's  return. 

Gassy  now  made  ready  for  her  departure.  She  felt  a 
pang  at  the  idea  of  leaving  me  ; — but  as  Ritty  could  not  or 
would  not  tell  her  what  had  become  of  me,  and  as  she 
knew,  that  separated  and  helpless  as  we  were,  it  was  im- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  11 

possible  for  us  to  render  each  other  any  assistance,  she  rightly 
judged,  that  she  would  best  serve  me,  and  best  comply  with 
my  wishes,  by  adopting  the  only  plan,  that,  seemed  to  carry 
with  it  any  likelihood  of  preserving  herself  from  the  violence 
she  dreaded. 

Gassy  had  supplied  herself  from  Kitty's  allowance,  with 
food  enough  to  last  for  several  days.  It  was  now  quite 
dark,  and  time  for  her  to  go.  She  kissed  her  hostess  and 
confederate,  who  seemed  much  affected  at  dismissing  her 
on  so  lonely  and  hopeless  an  adventure,  and  who  freely 
gave  her  what  little  money  she  had.  Gassy  was  a  good 
deal  touched  at  this  unexpected  generosity.  She  let  her 
self  down  from  the  window,  bade  Ritty  farewell,  and  sum 
moning  up  all  her  resolution  and  self-command,  she  took  the 
nearest  way  across  the  fields,  towards  the  high-road.  This 
road  was  little  travelled  except  by  the  people  of  Spring- 
Meadow  and  one  or  two  other  neighboring  plantations,  and 
at  this  hour  of  the  evening,  there  was  little  danger  of  meet 
ing  any  body,  except  perhaps  a  night-walking  slave,  who 
would  be  as  anxious  as  herself  to  avoid  being  seen.  There 
was  no  moon, — but  the  glimmer  of  the  star-light  served  to 
guide  her  steps.  She  felt  no  apprehension  of  losing  her 
way,  for  she  had  frequently  been  in  the  carriage  with  her 
mistress,  as  far  as  the  little  village  at  the  court-house  of  the 
county  ;  and  it  was  hither,  that  in  the  first  instance,  she  de 
termined  to  go. 

She  arrived  there,  without  having  met  a  single  soul.  As 
yret  there  were  no  signs  of  morning.  All  was  still,  save  the 
monotonous  chirpings  of  the  summer  insects,  interrupted 
now  and  then  by  the  crowing  of  a  cock,  or  the  barking  of  a 
watch  dog.  The  village  consisted  of  a  dilapidated  court 
house,  a  black-smith's  shop,  a  tavern,  two  or  three  stores, 
^nd  half  a  dozen  scattered  houses.  It  was  situated  at  the 
meeting  of  two  roads.  One  of  these  she  knew,  led  into  the 
road  that  ran  towards  Baltimore.  She  had  flattered  herself 
with  the  idea  of  reaching  that  city,  where  she  had  many 
acquaintances,  and  where  she  hoped  she  might  find  protec 
tion  and  employment.  Her  chance  of  ever  getting  there 
was  very  small.  Baltimore  was  some  two  or  three  hundred 
miles  distant;  and  she  did  not  even  know  which  of  the 


12  MEMOIRS    OF 

roads  that  met  at  the  court-house  she  ought  to  take.  She 
could  not  inquire  the  way,  beg  a  cup  of  cold  water,  or  even 
be  seen  upon  the  road,  without  the  risk  of  being  taken  up 
as  a  runaway,  and  carried  back  to  the  master  from  whom 
she  was  flying. 

After  hesitating  for  some  time,  she  took  one  of  the  roads 
that  offered  themselves  to  her  choice,  and  walked  on  with 
vigor.  The  excitement  of  the  last  day  or  two  seemed  to 
give  her  an  unnatural  strength  ;  for  after  a  walk  of  some 
twenty  miles,  she  felt  fresher  than  at  first.  But  the  light 
of  the  morning  dawn,  which  began  to  show  itself,  reminded 
her  that  it  was  no  longer  safe  to  pursue  her  journey.  Close 
by  the  road  side  was  a  friendly  thicket,  the  shrubs  and  weeds 
all  dripping  with  the  dew.  She  had  gone  but  a  little  way 
among  them,  when  she  found  them  so  high  and  close  as  to 
furnish  a  sufficient  hiding-place.  She  knelt  down,  and 
destitute  as  she  was  of  human  assistance,  she  besought  the 
aid  and  guardian  care  of  Heaven.  After  eating  a  scanty 
meal, — for  it  was  necessary  to  husband  her  provisions, — she 
scraped  the  leaves  together  into  a  rude  bed,  and  composed 
herself  to  sleep.  The  three  preceding  nights  she  had  scarcely 
slept  at  all, — but  she  made  it  up  now,  for  she  did  not  wake 
till  late  in  the  afternoon. 

As  soon  as  evening  closed  in,  she  started  again,  and 
walked  as  vigorously  as  before.  The  road  forked  frequently ; 
but  she  had  no  means  of  determining  which  of  the  various 
courses  she  ought  to  follow.  She  took  one  or  the  other,  as 
her  judgment,  or  rather  as  her  fancy  decided  ;  and  she  com 
forted  herself  with  the  notion,  that  whether  right  or  wrong 
in  her  selections,  at  all  events,  she  was  getting  further  -from 
Spri  ng-Meadow. 

In  the  course  of  the  night  she  met  several  travellers. 
Some  of  them  passed  without  seeming  to  notice  her.  She 
discovered  some  at  a  distance,  and  concealed  herself  in  the 
bushes  till  they  had  gone  by.  But  she  did  not  always  es 
cape  so  easily.  More  than  once,  she  was  stopped  and 
questioned  ;  but  luckily  she  succeeded  in  giving  satisfactory 
answers.  Indeed  there  was  nothing  in  her  complexion, 
especially  in  the  uncertain  light  of  the  evening,  that  would 
clearly  indicate  her  to  be  a  slave ;  and  in  answering  the 


ARCHY   MOORE  13 

questions  that  were  put  to  her,  she  took  care  to  say  nothing 
that  would  betray  her  condition.  One  of  the  men  who 
questioned  her,  shook  his  head,  and  did  not  seem  satisfied; 
another,  sat  on  his  horse  and  watched  her  till  she  was  fairly 
out  of  sigkt ;  a  third  told  her,  that  she  was  a  very  suspicious 
character ; — but  all  three  suffered  her  to  pass.  She  was  the 
less  liable  to  interruption,  because  in  Virginia,  the  houses 
of  the  inhabitants  are  not  generally  situated  along  the  public 
roads.  The  planters  usually  prefer  to  build  at  some  dis 
tance  from  the  high  way, — and  the  roads,  passing  along  the 
highest  and  most  barren  tracts,  wind  their  weary  length 
through  a  desolate,  and  what  seems  almost  an  uninhabited 
country.  When  morning  approached  again,  she  concealed 
herself  as  before,  and  waited  for  the  return  of  night  to  pur 
sue  her  journey. 

She  proceeded  in  this  way  for  four  days,  or  rather  nights, 
at  the  end  of  which  time  her  provisions  were  entirely  ex 
hausted.  She  had  wandered  she  knew  not  whither, — and 
the  hope  of  reaching  Baltimore,  which  at  first  had  lightened 
her  fatigue,  was  now  quite  gone.  She  knew  not  what  to 
do.  To  go  much  further  without  assistance  was  scarcely 
possible.  Yet  should  she  ask  any  where  for  food  or  guid 
ance,  though  she  stood  some  chance  perhaps  of  passing  for 
a  free  white  woman,  still  her  complexion,  and  the  circum 
stance  of  her  travelling  alone,  might  cause  her  to  be  sus 
pected  as  a  runaway,  and  very  probably,  she  would  be 
stopped,  put  into  some  jail,  and  detained  there,  till  suspicion 
was  changed  into  certainty. 

She  was  travelling  slowly  along,  the  fifth  night,  exhausted 
with  hunger  and  fatigue,  and  reflecting  upon  her  unhappy 
situation,  when  descending  a  hill,  the  road  came  suddenly 
upon  the  banks  of  a  broad  river.  There  was  no  bridge  ; 
but  a  ferry  boat  was  fastened  to  the  shore,  and  close  by  was 
the  ferry  house,  which  seemed  also  to  be  a  tavern.  Here 
was  a  new  perplexity.  She  could  not  cross  the  river  with 
out  calling  up  the  ferry  people  or  waiting  till  they  made 
their  appearance,  and  this  would  be  exposing  hersell  at  once 
to  that  risk  of  detection  which  she  had  resolved  to  defer  to 
the  very  last  moment.  Yet  to  turn  back  and  seek  another 
road  seemed  to  be  an  expedient  equally  desperate.  Any 

VOL.    II.  2 


14  MEMOIRS    OF 

other  road,  which  did  not  lead  in  a  direction  opposite  to  that 
which  she  wished  to  follow,  would  be  likely  to  bring  her 
again  upon  the  banks  of  the  same  river  ;  and  as  she  could 
not  live  without  food,  she  would  be  soon  compelled  to  ap 
ply  somewhere  for  assistance,  and  to  face  the  detection  she 
was  so  anxious  to  avoid. 

She  sat  down  by  the  roadside,  resolved  to  wait  for  the 
morning,  and  to  take  her  chance.  There  was  a  field  of  corn 
near  the  house,  and  the  stalks  were  covered  with  roasting 
ears.  She  had  no  fire,  nor  the  means  of  kindling  one  ;  but 
the  sweet  milky  taste  of  the  unripe  kernels  served  to  satisfy 
the  cravings  of  hunger. 

She  had  chosen  a  place  where  she  could  observe  the  first 
movements  about  the  ferry  house.  The  morning  had  but 
just  dawned,  when  she  saw  a  man  open  the  door  and  come 
out  of  it.  He  was  black,  and  she  walked  boldly  up  to  him, 
and  told  him  that  she  was  in  great  haste  and  wished  to  be 
taken  across  the  ferry  immediately.  The  fellow  seemed 
rather  surprised  at  seeing  a  woman,  a  traveller,  alone,  and 
at  that  hour  of  the  morning ; — but  after  staring  at  her  a 
minute  or  two,  he  appeared  to  recollect  that  here  was  an 
opportunity  of  turning  an  honest  penny,  and  muttering 
something  about  the  earliness  of  the  hour,  and  the  ferry  boat 
not  starting  till  after  sunrise,  he  offered  to  take  her  across 
in  a  canoe,  for  half  a  dollar.  This  price  she  did  not  hesi 
tate  to  pay  ;  and  the  fellow  no  doubt,  put  it  into  his  own 
pocket,  without  ever  recollecting  to  hand  it  over  to  his 
master,  or  to  mention  a  word  to  him  about  this  early  pas 
senger. 

They  entered  the  boat,  and  he  paddled  her  across.  She 
did  not  dare  to  ask  any  questions,  lest  she  should  betray 
herself;  and  she  did  her  best  to  quiet  the  curiosity  of  the 
boatman,  who  however,  was  very  civil  and  easily  satisfied. 
Having  landed  on  the  opposite  shore,  she  travelled  on  a 
mile  or  two  further.  By  this  time  it  was  broad  day-light, 
and  she  concealed  herself  as  usual. 

At  night,  she  set  out  again.  But  she  was  faint  with 
hunger,  her  shoes  were  almost  worn  out,  her  feet  were 
swollen  and  very  painful,  and  altogether,  her  situation  was 
any  thing  but  comfortable.  She  seemed  to  have  got  off  the 


ARCHY    MOORE.  15 

high-way,  and  to  be  travelling  some  cross-road,  which  wound 
along  through  dreary  and  deserted  fields,  and  appeared  to 
he  very  little  frequented.  All  that  night,  she  did  not  meet 
a  single  person,  or  pass  a  single  house.  Painful  as  was  the 
effort,  she  still  struggled  to  drag  along  her  weary  steps  ;  hut 
her  spirits  were  broken,  her  heart  was  sinking,  and  her 
strength  was  almost  gone.  At  length  the  morning  dawned  ; 
but  the  wretched  Gassy  did  not  seek  her  customary  hiding- 
place.  She  still  kept  on  in  hopes  of  reaching  some  house. 
She  was  now  quite  subdued;  and  chose  to  risk  her  liberty, 
and  even  to  hazard  being  carried  back  to  Spring-Meadow, 
and  subjected  to  the  fearful  fate  from  which  she  was  flying, 
rather  than  perish  with  hunger  and  fatigue.  Sad  indeed  it 
is,  that  the  noblest  resolution  and  the  loftiest  stubbornness 
of  soul  is  compelled  so  often  to  yield  to  the  base  necessities 
of  animal  nature,  and  from  a  paltry  and  irrational  fear  of 
death, — of  which  tyrants  have  ever  known  so  well  to  take 
advantage, — to  sink  clown  from  the  lofty  height  of  heroic 
virtue,  to  the  dastard  submissiveness  of  a  craven  and  obedi 
ent  slave  ! 

She  had  not  gone  far  before  she  saw  a  low  mean  looking 
house  by  the  road  side.  It  was  a  small  building  of  logs, 
blackened  with  age,  and  not  a  little  dilapidated.  Half  the 
panes  or  more,  were  wanting  in  the  two  or  three  little  win 
dows  with  which  it  was  provided,  and  their  places  were 
supplied  by  old  hats,  old  coats,  and  pieces  of  plank.  The 
door  seemed  dropping  from  its  hinges ;  and  there  was  no 
enclosure  of  any  kind  about  the  house,  unless  that  name 
might  properly  be  given  to  the  tall  weeds  with  which  it  was 
surrounded.  Altogether,  it  showed  most  manifest  signs  of 
thriftless  and  comfortless  indolence. 

She  knocked  softly  at  the  door ;  and  a  female  voice,  but 
a  rough  and  harsh  one,  bade  her  come  in.  There  was  no 
hall  or  entry  ;  the  out-door  opened  directly  into  the  only 
room;  and  on  entering,  she  found  it  occupied  by  a  middle 
aged  woman,  barefooted,  and  in  a  slovenly  dress,  with  her 
uncombed  hair  hanging  about  a  haggard  and  sun-burnt  face. 
She  was  setting  a  rickety  table,  and  seemed  to  be  making 
preparations  for  breakfast.  One  side  of  the  room  was  al 
most  wholly  taken  up  by  an  enormous  fire  place.  A  fire 


16  MEMOIRS    OF 

was  burning  in  it,  and  the  corn-cakes  were  baking  in  the 
ashes.  In  the  opposite  corner  was  a  low  bed,  on  which  a 
man,  the  master  of  the  family  most  likely,  lay  still  a-sleep, 
undisturbed  by  the  cries  and  clamors  of  half-a-dozen  brats, 
who  had  been  tumbling  and  bawling  about  the  house,  un 
washed,  uncombed,  and  half  naked,  but  who  were  seized 
with  sudden  silence,  and  slunk  behind  their  mother,  at  the 
sight  of  a  stranger. 

The  woman  pointed  to  a  rude  sort  of  stool  or  bench, 
which  seemed  the  only  piece  of  furniture  in  the  nature  of  a 
chair,  which  the  house  contained,  and  asked  Cassy  to  sit 
down.  She  did  so  ;  and  her  hostess  eyed  her  sharply,  and 
seemed  to  wait  with  a  good  deal  of  curiosity  to  hear  who 
she  was,  and  what  she  wanted.  As  soon  as  Cassy  could 
collect  her  thoughts,  she  told  her  hostess  that  she  was  trav 
elling  from  Richmond  to  Baltimore  to  see  a  sick  sister. 
She  was  poor  and  friendless,  and  was  obliged  to  go  on  foot. 
She  had  lost  her  way,  and  had  wandered  about  all  night, 
without  knowing  where  she  was,  or  whither  she  was  going. 
She  was  half  dead,  she  added,  with  hunger  and  fatigue,  and 
wanted  food  and  rest,  and  such  directions  about  the  road, 
as  might  enable  her  to  pursue  her  journey.  At  the  same 
time  she  took  out  her  purse,  in  order  to  show  that  she  was 
able  to  pay  for  what  she  wanted. 

Her  hostess,  notwithstanding  her  rude  and  poverty-strick 
en  appearance,  seemed  touched  with  this  pitiful  story. 
She  told  her  to  put  up  her  money  ;  she  said  she  did  not  keep 
a  tavern,  and  that  she  was  able  to  give  a  poor  woman  a 
breakfast,  without  being  paid  for  it. 

Cassy  was  too  faint  and  weak  to  be  much  in  a  humor 
for  talking;  besides,  she  trembled  at  every  word,  lest  she 
might  drop  some  unguarded  expression  that  would  serve  to 
betray  her.  But  now  that  the  ice  was  broken,  the  curiosity 
of  her  hostess  could  not  be  kept  under.  She  overwhelmed 
her  with  a  torrent  of  questions,  and  every  time  Cassy  hesi 
tated,  or  gave  any  sign  of  confusion,  she  turned  her  keen 
grey  eyes  upon  her,  with  a  sharp  and  penetrating  expres 
sion  that  increased  her  disorder. 

Pretty  soon  the  ash-cakes  were  baked,  and  the  other 
preparations  for  breakfast  were  finished,  when  the  woman 


ARCHY    MOORE.  17 

shook  her  good  man  roughly  by  the  shoulder,  and  bade  him 
bestir  himself.  This  connubial  salutation  roused  the  sleeper. 
He  sat  up  on  the  bed,  and  stared  about  the  room  with  a 
varan t  gaze  ;  but  the  redness  of  his  eyes,  and  the  sallow 
paleness  of  his  face,  seemed  to  show  that  he  had  not  quite 
slept  off  the  effects  of  the  last  night's  frolic.  The  wife  ap 
peared  to  know  what  was  wanting ;  for  she  forthwith  pro 
duced  the  whiskey-jug,  and  poured  out  a  large  dose  of  the 
raw  spirit.  Her  husband  drank  it  off  with  a  relish,  and  with 
a  trembling  hand,  returned  the  broken  glass  to  his  wife, 
who  filled  it  half  full,  and  emptied  it  herself.  Then  turning 
to  Gassy,  and  remarking,  that,  "  a  body  was  fit  for  nothing 
till  they  had  got  their  morning  bitters,"  she  offered  her  a 
dram,  and  seemed  not  a  little  astonished  at  its  being  de 
clined. 

The  good  man  then  began  leisurely  to  dress  himself;  and 
had  half  finished  his  toilet  before  he  seemed  to  notice  that 
there  was  company  in  the  house.  He  now  came  forward, 
and  bade  the  stranger  good  morning.  His  wife  immediate 
ly  drew  him  aside,  and  they  began  an  earnest  whispering. 
Now  and  then  they  would  both  look  Gassy  in  the  face,  and 
as  she  was  conscious  that  she  must  be  the  subject  of  their 
conversation,  she  began  to  feel  a  good  deal  of  embarrass 
ment,  which  she  was  too  little  practised  in  deceit  to  be  able  to 
conceal.  This  matrimonial  conference  over,  the  good  woman 
bade  Gassy  draw  up  her  stool  and  sit  down  at  the  break 
fast  table.  The  breakfast  consisted  of  hot  corn-cakes  and 
cold  bacon,  a  palatable  meal  enough  in  any  case,  but  which 
Cassy's  long  starvation  made  her  look  upon  as  the  most  de 
licious  she  had  ever  eaten.  Sweet  indeed,  ought  to  be 
that  mess  of  pottage,  for  which  one  sells  the  birthright  of 
freedom  ! 

She  ate  with  an  appetite  which  she  could  not  restrain  : 
and  her  hostess  seemai  a  good  deal  surprised  and  a  little 
alarmed,  at  the  rapidity  with  which  the  table  was  cleared. 
Breakfast  being  finished,  the  man  of  the  house  began  to 
question  her.  He  asked  her  about  Richmond,  and  whether 
she  knew  such  and  such  persons,  who,  as  he  said,  were 
living  there.  Gassy  had  never  been  in  Richmond,  and 
knew  the  town  only  by  name.  Of  course,  her  answers 
2* 


18  MEMOIRS    OF 

were  very  little  to  the  purpose.  She  blushed  and  stam 
mered  and  held  down  her  head,  and  the  man  completed 
her  confusion  by  telling  her,  that  it  was  very  plain  she  had 
not  come  from  Richmond,  as  she  pretended  ;  for  he  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  place,  and  it  was  clear  enough, 
from  her  answers,  that  she  knew  nothing  about  it.  He 
told  her  that  it  was  no  use  to  deny  it ; — her  face  betrayed 
her  ; — and  he  "  reckoned,"  if  the  truth  was  told,  she  was 
no  better  than  a  runaway.  At  the  sound  of  this  word,  the 
blood  rushed  into  her  face,  and  her  heart  sunk  within  her. 
It  was  in  vain,  that  she  denied,  protested,  and  entreated. 
Her  terror,  confusion  and  alarm  only  served  to  give  new 
assurance  to  her  captors,  who  seemed  to  chuckle  over  their 
prize,  and  to  amuse  themselves  with  her  fright  and  misery, 
very  much  as  a  cat  plays  with  the  mouse  it  has  caught. 

He  told  her  that  if  she  were  in  fact  a  free  woman,  there 
was  not  the  slightest  ground  for  alarm.  If  she  had  no  free 
papers  with  her,  she  would  only  have  to  lie  in  jail  till  she 
could  send  to  Richmond  and  get  them.  That  was  all ! 

But  that  was  more  than  enough  for  poor  Cassy.  No 
proofs  of  freedom  could  she  produce  ;  and  her  going  to  jail 
would  be  almost  certain  to  end  in  her  being  restored  to 
colonel  Moore,  and  becoming  the  wretched  victim  of  his  rage 
and  lust.  That  fate,  must  be  deferred  as  long  as  possible, 
and  there  seemed  but  one  way  of  escaping  it. 

She  confessed  that  she  was  a  slave,  and  a  runaway  ; 
but  she  positively  refused  to  tell  the  name  of  her  master. 
He  lived,  she  said,  a  great  way  off;  and  she  had  run  away 
from  him  not  out  of  any  spirit  of  discontent  or  disobedience, 
but  because  his  cruelty  and  injustice  were  too  great  to  be 
endured.  There  was  nothing  she  would  not  choose  rather 
than  fall  into  his  hands  again ;  if  they  would  only  save 
her  from  that, — if  they  would  only  let  her  live  with  them, 
she  would  be  their  faithful  and  obatlient  servant  as  long  as 
she  lived. 

The  man  and  his  wife  looked  at  each  other  and  seemed 
pleased  with  the  idea.  They  walked  aside  and  talked  it 
over.  Nothing  appeared  to  deter  them  from  accepting  her 
proposal,  at  once,  but  the  fear  of  being  detected  in  harbor 
ing  and  detaining  a  runaway.  Cassy  did  her  best  to  quiet 


ARCHY   MOORE.  19 

these  apprehensions ;  and  after  a  short  struggle,  avarice 
and  the  dear  delight  of  power  triumphed  over  their  fears, 
and  Gassy  became  the  property  of  Mr  Proctor — for  so  the 
man  was  named.  His  property,  as  he  might  speciously 
argue,  by  her  own  consent ;  a  ten  times  better  title,  than 
the  vast  majority  of  his  countrymen  could  boast. 

To  prevent  suspicions  among  the  neighbors,  it  was 
agreed  that  Gassy  should  pass  for  a  free  woman,  whom 
Mr  Proctor  had  hired  ;  and  as  that  gentleman  had  been  so 
fortunate  as  to  have  been  initiated  into  the  art  and  mystery 
of  penmanship— an  accomplishment  somewhat  rare  among 
the  '  poor  white  folks '  of  Virginia — in  order  that  Gassy 
might  be  prepared  to  answer  impertinent  questions,  he  gave 
her  free-papers,  which  he  forged  for  the  occasion. 

It  was  a  great  thing  to  have  escaped  returning  to  Spring- 
Meadow.  But  for  all  that,  Gassy  soon  discovered,  that 
her  present  situation  would  not  prove  very  agreeable.  Mr 
Proctor  was  the  descendant  and  representative  of  what,  at 
no  distant  period,  had  been  a  rich  and  very  respectable 
family.  The  frequent  division  of  a  large  estate,  which  no 
body  took  any  pains  to  increase,  while  all  diminished  it  by 
idleness,  dissipation  and  bad  management,  had  left  Mr 
Proctor's  father  in  possession  of  a  few  slaves  and  a  consid 
erable  tract  of  worn-out  land.  At  his  death,  the  slaves 
had  been  sold  to  pay  his  debts,  and  the  land,  being  divided 
among  his  numerous  children,  had  made  Mr  Proctor  the 
possessor  of  only  a  few  barren  acres.  But  though  left  with 
this  miserable  pittance,  he  had  been  brought  up,  in  the  dis 
sipated  and  indolent  habits  of  a  Virginian  gentleman  ;  the 
land  he  o\vned,  which  was  so  poor  and  worthless  that  none 
of  his  numerous  creditors  thought  it  worth  their  while  to 
disturb  him  in  the  possession  of  it,  still  entitled  him  to  the 
dignity  of  a  freeholder  and  a  voter ;  and  he  felt  himself  as 
much  above,  what  is  esteemed  in  that  country,  the  base 
and  degraded  condition  of  a  laborer,  as  the  richest  aristo 
crat  in  the  whole  state.  He  was  as  proud,  as  lazy,  and  as 
dissipated  as  any  of  the  nabobs,  his  neighbors ;  and  like 
them,  he  devoted  the  principal  part  of  his  time  to  gam 
bling,  politics  and  drink. 

Luckily  for  Mr  Proctor,  his  wife  was  a  very  notable 


20  MEMOIRS    OF 

woman.  She  boasted  no  patrician  blood  ;  and  when  her 
husband  began  to  talk,  as  he  often  did,  about  the  antiquity 
and  respectability  of  his  family,  she  would  cut  him  short  by 
observing,  that  she  thought  herself  full  as  good  as  he  was, — 
but  for  all  that,  her  ancestors  had  been  'poor  folks'  as  far 
back  as  any  body  knew  any  thing  about  them.  If  the 
question  between  aristocracy  and  democracy  were  to  be 
settled  by  the  experience  of  the  Proctors,  the  plebeians, 
most  undoubtedly,  would  carry  the  day  ;  for  while  her  hus 
band  did  little  or  nothing  but  frolic,  drink,  and  ride  about 
the  country,  Mrs  Proctor  ploughed,  planted  and  gathered  in 
the  crop.  But  for  her  energy  and  industry,  it  is  much 
to  be  feared  that  Mr  Proctor's  aristocratic  habits  would 
have  soon  made  himself  and  his  family  a  burden  upon  the 
county. 

Cassy's  services  were  a  great  accession  to  this  estab 
lishment.  Her  new  mistress  seemed  resolved  to  make  the 
most  of  them ;  and  the  poor  girl  before  long,  was  almost 
completely  broken  down,  by  a  degree  and  a  kind  of  labor 
to  which  she  was  totally  unaccustomed.  Two  or  three  times 
a  week,  at  least,  Mr  Proctor  came  home  drunk  ;  and  on 
these  occasions,  he  blustered  about,  threatened  his  wife,  and 
beat  and  abused  his  children  without  any  sort  of  mercy. 
Gassy  could  hardly  expect  to  com/3  off  better  than  they 
did  ; — indeed  his  drunken  abuse  would  have  become  quite 
intolerable,  if  the  energetic  Mrs  Proctor  had  not  known  how 
to  quell  it.  At  first,  she  used  mild  measures,  and  coaxed 
and  flattered  him  into  quiet ;  but  when  these  means  failed, 
she  would  tumble  him  into  bed  by  main  strength,  and 
compel  him  to  lie  still  by  the  terror  of  the  broom-stick. 

It  was  nothing  but  the  wholesome  authority,  which  Mrs 
Proctor  exercised  over  her  husband,  that  protected  Gassy 
against  what  she  dreaded  even  more  than  Mr  Proctor's 
drunken  rudeness.  Whenever  he  could  find  her  alone,  he 
tormented  her  with  solicitations  of  a  most  distressing  kind  ; 
and  nothing  could  rid  her  of  his  importunities,  except  the 
threat  of  complaining  to  Mrs  Proctor.  But  her  troubles 
did  not  end  even  here.  Mrs  Proctor  listened  to  her  com 
plaints,  thanked  her  for  the  information,  and  said  she  would 
speak  to  Mr  Proctor  about  it.  But  she  could  not  imagine 


ARCHY   MOORE.  21 

that  a  slave  could  possibly  be  endowed  with  the  slightest 
particle  of  that  virtue,  of  which  the  free  women  of  Virginia 
boast  the  exclusive  possession.  Full  of  this  notion,  she 
judged  it  highly  improbable,  whatever  merit  Gassy  might 
pretend  to  claim,  that  she  had  actually  resisted  the  impor 
tunities  and  solicitations  of  so  very  seducing  a  fellow  as 
Mr  Proctor  ;  and  filled  with  all  the  spite  and  fury  of 
female  jealousy,  she  delighted  herself  with  tormenting  the 
object  of  her  suspicions.  Mrs  Proctor,  with  all  her  merit, 
had  one  little  foible  which,  most  likely,  she  had  adopted 
out  of  compliment  to  her  husband.  She  thought  a  daily 
dram  of  whiskey  necessary  to  keep  off  the  fever  and  ague ; 
and  when  through  inadvertence,  as  sometimes  would  happen, 
she  doubled  the  dose,  it  seemed  to  give  a  new  edge  to  the 
natural  keenness  of  her  temper.  On  these  occasions,  she 
plied  both  words  and  blows  with  a  fearful  energy ;  and 
though  perhaps  it  were  difficult  to  say  which  of  the  two 
was  most  to  be  dreaded,  both  together  they  were  enough  to 
exhaust  the  patience  of  a  saint. 

Poor  Gassy  could  discover  no  means  of  delivering  her 
self  from  this  complication  of  miseries,  under  which  she 
was  ready  to  sink,  when  she  was  most  unexpectedly  re 
lieved,  by  the  unsolicited  interference  of  a  couple  of  Mr 
Proctor's  neighbors.  They  were  men  of  leisure  like  him  ; 
like  him  too,  they  were  of  good  families,  and  one  of  them 
had  received  an  excellent  education,  and  was  more  or  less 
distantly  connected  with  several  of  the  most  distinguished 
people  in  the  state.  But  a  course  of  reckless  dissipation 
had  long  ago  stripped  them  of  such  property  as  they  had 
inherited,  and  reduced  them  to  live  by  their  wits ;  which 
they  exercised  in  a  sort  of  partnership,  principally  on  the 
race-course  and  at  the  gaming-table. 

These  two  speculating  gentlemen  were  on  terms  of  inti 
macy  with  Mr  Proctor,  and  they  knew  that  he  had  a  free 
woman,  for  such  they  supposed  Gassy  to  be,  living  at  his 
house.  In  common  with  most  Virginians,  they  considered 
the  existence  of  a  class  of  freed  people  as  a  great  social 
annoyance,  and  likely  enough  in  the  end,  seriously  to 
endanger  those  c  sacred  rights  of  property,'  in  defence  of 
which  there  is  nothing,  which  a  true-born  son  of  liberty 


22  MEMOIRS    OF 

ought  not  to  be  proud  to  undertake.  Instigated  doubtless, 
by  such  patriotic  notions,  these  public-spirited  persons 
judged  that  they  would  be  rendering  the  state  a  service, — 
to  say  nothing  of  the  money  they  might  put  into  their  own 
pockets, — by  applying  to  this  great  political  evil,  so  far  at 
least  as  Gassy  was  a  party  to  4t,  a  remedy,  which  the 
doctrines  of  more  than  one  of  the  Virginian  statesmen,  and 
the  spirit  of  more  than  one  of  the  Virginian  statutes,  would 
seem  fully  to  sanction.  In  plain  English,  they  resolved  to 
seize  Gassy,  and  sell  her  for  a  slave ! 

The  business  of  kidnapping  is  one  of  the  natural  fruits 
of  the  American  system  of  slavery  ;  and  is  as  common, 
and  as  well  organized  in  several  parts  of  the  United  States, 
as  the  business  of  horse-stealing  is,  in  many  other  countries. 
When  they  take  to  stealing  slaves,  the  operations  of  these 
adventurers  become  very  hazardous;  but  while  they  confine 
themselves  to  stealing  only  free  people,  they  can  pursue 
their  vocation  with' comparatively  little  danger.  They  may 
perhaps  inflict  some  trifling  personal  wrong  ; — but  accord 
ing  to  the  doctrines  of  some  of  the  most  popular  among 
the  American  politicians,  they  are  doing  the  public  no  incon 
siderable  service ;  since,  in  their  opinion,  nothing  seems  to 
be  wanting  to  render  the  slave-holding  states  of  America  a 
perfect  paradise,  except  the  extermination  of  the  emanci 
pated  class.  It  was  no  doubt,  by  some  such  lofty  notions 
of  the  public  good,  that  Cassy's  friends  were  actuated.  At 
all  events,  those  sophistries  which  tyranny  has  invented  to 
justify  oppression,  are  as  much  an  apology  for  them  as  for 
any  one  else. 

As  far  as  Gassy  could  learn,  their  scheme  was  pretty 
much  as  follows.  They  invited  Mr  Proctor  to  a  drinking 
frolic,  and  as  soon  as  the  whiskey  had  reduced  him  to  a 
state  of  insensibility,  a  message  was  sent  to  his  wife  that 
her  husband  was  taken  dangerously  ill,  and  that  she  must 
instantly  come  to  his  assistance.  Notwithstanding  a  few 
domestic  jars,  Mr  and  Mrs  Proctor  were  a  most  loving 
couple ;  and  the  good  woman,  greatly  alarmed  at  this  un 
expected  news,  immediately  set  out  to  visit  her  husband. 
The  conspirators  haO  followed  their  own  messenger,  and 
were  concealed  in  a  thicket  close  to  the  house  watching  for 


ARCHY    MOORE.  23 

her  departure.  She  was  hardly  out  of  sight,  before  they 
rushed  into  the  field  where  Gassy  was  at  work,  bound  her, 
hand  and  foot,  put  her  into  a  sort  of  covered  wagon  or 
carry-all,  which  they  had  provided  for  the  occasion,  and 
drove  oft'  as  fast  as  possible.  They  travelled  all  that  day, 
and  the  following  night.  Early  the  next  morning,  they 
reached  a  small  village  where  they  met  a  slave-trader  with 
a  gang  of  slaves,  on  his  way  to  Richmond.  The  gentle 
men-thieves  soon  struck  up  a  bargain  with  the  gentleman 
slave-trader ;  and  having  received  their  money,  they  de 
livered  Gassy  into  his  possession. 

He  seemed  touched  with  her  beauty  and  her  distress,  and 
treated  her  with  a  kindness  which  she  hardly  expected 
from  one  of  his  profession.  Her  shoes  and  clothes  were 
nearly  worn  out.  He  bought  her  new  ones ;  and  as  she 
was  half  dead  with  fatigue,  terror  and  want  of  sleep,  he 
even  went  so  far  as  to  wait  a  day  at  the  village,  in  order 
that  she  might  recover  a  little  before  setting  out  on  the 
journey  to  Richmond. 

But  she  soon  found  that  she  was  expected  to  make  a 
return  for  these  favors.  When  they  stopped  for  the  night, 
at  the  end  of  the  first  day's  journey,  she  received  an  inti 
mation  that  she  was  to  share  the  bed  of  her  master ;  and 
directions  were  given  to  her  how  and  when  to  come  there. 
These  directions  she  saw  fit  to  disregard.  In  the  morn 
ing  her  master  called  her  to  account.  He  laughed  in  her 
face,  when  she  spoke  of  the  wickedness  of  what  he  had 
commanded,  and  told  her  he  did  not  want  her  to  be  preach 
ing  any  of  her  sermons  to  him.  He  would  excuse  her  dis 
obedience  this  time  ;  but  she  must  take  very  good  care  not 
to  repeat  it. 

The  next  evening  she  received  directions  similar  to  those 
which  had  been  given  the  day  before  ;  and  again  she  dis 
obeyed  them.  Her  master,  who  had  been  drinking  and 
gambling  half  the  night,  with  some  boon  companions  whom 
he  found  at  the  tavern,  enraged  at  not  finding  her  in  his 
room  as  he  had  expected,  sallied  forth  in  pursuit  of  her. 
Luckily  he  was  too  drunk  to  know  very  well  where  he  was 
going.  'He  had  gone  but  a  few  steps  from  the  tavern  door, 
before  he  stumbled  over  a  pile  of  wood,  and  injured  him- 


24  MEMOIRS    OF 

self  very  seriously.  His  cries  soon  brought  some  of  the 
tavern's  people  to  his  assistance.  They  carried  him  to  his 
room,  bound  up  his  bruises,  and  put  him  to  bed. 

It  was  late  the  next  morning  before  he  was  able  to  rise  ; 
but  he  was  no  sooner  up  than  he  resolved  to  take  ample 
vengeance  for  his  disappointment  and  his  bruises.  He  came 
hobbling  to  the  tavern  door,  with  a  crutch  in  one  hand  and 
a  whip  in  the  other.  He  had  all  his  slaves  paraded  before 
the  house  ;  and  made  two  of  the  stoutest  fellows  among 
them  hold  Cassy  by  the  arms,  while  he  plied  the  whip. 
Her  cries  soon  collected  the  idlers  and  loungers,  who  seem 
to  constitute  the  principal  population  of  a  Virginian  vil 
lage.  Some  inquired  the  cause  of  the  whipping,  but 
without  seeming  to  think  the  question  of  consequence 
enough  to  wait  for  an  answer.  It  seemed  to  be  the  general 
opinion  that  the  master  was  tipsy,  and  had  chosen  this  way 
to  vent  his  drunken  humors  ;  but  whether  drunk  or  sober, 
nobody  thought  of  interfering  with  his  'sacred  and  unques 
tionable  rights.'  On  the  contrary,  all  looked  on  with 
unconcern,  if  not  with  approbation;  and  the  greater  number 
seemed  as  much  pleased  with  the  sport,  as  so  many  boys 
would  have  been,  with  the  baiting  of  an  unlucky  cat. 

Just  in  the  midst  of  this  proceeding,  a  handsome  travel 
ling  carriage  drove  up  to  the  door.  There  were  two  ladies 
in  it ;  and  they  no  sooner  saw  what  was  going  on,  than 
with  that  humanity,  so  natural  to  the  female  heart  that  not 
even  the  horrid  customs  and  detestable  usages  of  slave- 
holding  tyranny  can  totally  extinguish  it,  they  begged  the 
brutal  savage  to  leave  beating  the  poor  girl,  and  tell  them 
what  was  the  matter. 

The  fellow  reluctantly  dropped  the  lash,  and  answered 
in  a  surly  tone,  that  she  was  an  insolent  disobedient  bag 
gage,  not  fit  to  be  noticed  by  two  such  ladies,  and  that  he 
was  only  giving  her  a  little  wholesome  correction. 

However,  this  did  not  seem  to  satisfy  them  ;  and  in  the 
mean  time  the  carriage  steps  were  let  down  and  they  got 
out.  Poor  Cassy  was  sobbing  and  crying  and  scarcely 
able  to  utter  a  word  ;  her  hair  had  fallen  down  over  her 
face  and  shoulders ;  and  her  cheeks  were  all  stained  with 
tears.  Yet  even  in  this  situation,  the  two  ladies  seemed 


ARCHY   MOORE.  25 

struck  with  her  appearance.  They  entered  into  conversa 
tion  with  her,  and  soon  found  that  she  had  been  bred  a 
ladies'  maid,  and  that  her  present  master  was  a  slave-trader. 
These  ladies,  it  seemed,  had  been  travelling  at  the  north ; 
and  while  on  their  journey,  had  lost  a  female  servant  by  a 
sudden  and  violent  attack  of  fever.  They  were  now  on 
their  return  to  Carolina  ;  and  the  younger  of  the  two,  sug 
gested  to  her  mother — for  such  their  relation  proved  to  be 
— to  buy  Gassy  to  supply  the  place  of  the  maid  they  had 
lost.  The  mother  started  some  objections  to  purchasing  a 
stranger,  about  whom  they  knew  nothing,  and  who  had 
been  sold  by  her  former  owner,  they  knew  not  for  what 
reasons.  But  when  Cassy's  tears,  prayers  and  supplica 
tions,  were  added  to  the  entreaties  of  her  daughter,  she 
found  herself  quite  unable  to  resist;  and  she  sent  to  ask  the 
man  his  price.  He  named  it.  It  was  a  high  one.  But 
Mrs  Montgomery — for  that  was  the  lady's  name — was  one 
of  those  people,  who  when  they  have  made  up  their  minds 
to  do  a  generous  action,  are  not  easily  to  be  shaken  from 
their  purpose.  She  took  Gassy  into  the  house  with  her, 
ordered  the  trunks  to  be  brought  in,  and  told  the  man  to 
make  out  his  bill  of  sale.  The  purchase  was  no  sooner 
completed,  than  her  new  mistress  took  Gassy  up  stairs,  and 
soon  fitted  her  with  a  dress  better  becoming  her  new  situa 
tion,  than  did  the  coarse  gown  and  heavy  shoes  for  which 
she  was  indebted  to  the  disinterested  generosity  of  her  late 
master. 

Gassy  was  dressed,  the  bill  of  sale  was  delivered,  and 
the  money  paid,  when  Mrs  Montgomery's  brother  and  trav 
elling  companion  rode  up.  He  rallied  his  sister  not  a  little, 
on  what  he  called  her  foolish  propensity  to  interfere  between 
other  people  and  their  servants  ;  he  took  her  to  task  rather 
severely,  for  the  imprudence  of  her  purchase,  and  the  high 
price  she  had  paid;  and  he  told  her  with  a  smile  and  a 
shake  of  the  head,  that  one  time  or  other,  her  foolish  confi 
dence  and  generosity  would  be  her  ruin.  Mrs  Montgomery 
took  her  brother's  raillery  all  in  good  part;  the  carriage  was 
ordered,  and  they  proceeded  together  on  their  journey. 

The  ladies  with  whom  Gassy  had  come  to  the  meeting, 
were  Mrs  Montgomery  and  her  daughter.  They  lived 

VOL.  II.  3 


26  MEMOIRS      OF 

some  ten  miles  from  Carleton-Hall.  So  near  had  Cassy 
and  myself  been  to  each  other  for  six  long  months  or  more, 
without  knowing  it.  Cassy  spoke  of  her  mistress  with  the 
greatest  affection.  Her  gratitude  was  unbounded ;  and  she 
seemed  to  find  a  real  pleasure  and  enjoyment  in  serving  a 
benefactress  who  treated  her  with  a  gentle  and  uniform 
kindness,  not  often  exerted  even  by  those  who  are  capable 
of  momentary  acts  of  the  greatest  generosity. 

As  Cassy  finished  her  story,  she  threw  her  arms  about 
my  neck,  leaned  her  head  upon  my  bosom,  and  looking  me 
in  the  face,  while  the  tears  were  streaming  from  her  eyes, 
she  heaved  a  sigh,  and  whispered,  that  she  was  too,  too 
happy  !  With  such  a  mistress,  and  restored  so  unexpect 
edly  to  the  arms  of  a  husband,  whom,  fondly  as  she  loved 
him,  she  feared  to  have  lost  forever,  \vhat  more  could  she 
desire  ! 

Alas  poor  girl ! — she  forgot  that  we  were  slaves ; — and 
that  the  very  next  day  might  again  separate  us,  subject  us 
to  other  masters,  and  renew  her  sufferings,  and  my  miseries! 


CHAPTER  II. 

BEFORE  we  had  half  finished  what  we  had  to  say  to 
each  other,  the  movement  of  the  people  on  the  hill-side 
informed  us  that  the  morning's  religious  services  were  over. 
Never  before  had  one  of  my  master's  sermons  seemed  so 
short  to  me.  We  hastened  towards  the  spot ;  I  to  receive 
my  master's  orders,  and  Cassy  to  attend  upon  her  mistress. 
As  we  came  near  the  rural  pulpit,  I  observed  Mr  Carleton 
in  conversation  with  two  ladies,  who  proved  to  be  Mrs 
Montgomery  and  her  daughter.  We  stopped  at  a  little 
distance  from  them.  Miss  Montgomery  looked  around, 
and  seeing  us  standing  together,  she  beckoned  to  Cassy, 
and  pointing  to  me,  she  inquired  if  that  was  the  husband, 
who  had  put  her  into  such  a  flutter  that  morning  ?  This 
question  drew  the  notice  of  the  other  two  ;  and  my  master 
seemed  a  little  surprised  at  seeing  me  in  this  new  character. 


ARCHY   MOORE.  27 

u  What's  this,  Archy,"  he  said,  "what  is  the  meaning  of  all 
this  ?  It  is  the  first  I  ever  heard  of  your  being  married. 
You  don't  pretend  to  claim  that  pretty  girl  there  for  your 
wife?" 

I  replied  that  she  was  indeed,  my  wife,  though  it  was 
now  some  two  years  or  more,  since  we  had  seen  or  known 
any  thing  of  each  other.  I  added,  that  I  had  never  men 
tioned  my  marriage  to  him,  because  I  had  despaired  of  ever 
seeing  my  wife  again  ;  and  now,  it  was  nothing  but  the 
merest  accident  that  had  brought  us  together. 

"  Well,  Archy,  if  she  is  your  wife,  I  don't  know  how  I 
can  help  it,  though  I  suppose  I  shall  have  you  spending 
half  your  time  at  Poplar-Grove ; — is  not  that  what  your 
place  is  called,  Mrs  Montgomery?" 

She  said  it  was  ; — and  after  a  moment's  pause,  observed, 
that  too  little  respect,  she  feared,  was  often  paid  to  the 
matrimonial  connexions  of  servants.  For  her  part,  she 
could  not  but  regard  them  as  sacred  ;  and  if  Gassy  and 
myself  were  really  married,  and  I  was  a  decent,  civil  fellow, 
she  had  no  objection  to  my  visiting  Poplar-Grove,  as  often 
as  Mr  Carleton  would  permit. 

My  master  undertook  to  answer  for  my  good  behavior ; 
and  turning  to  me,  he  bade  me  bring  up  the  horses.  I 
made  all  the  haste  I  could;  but  before  I  returned,  Mrs 
Montgomery  was  gone,  and  Gassy  with  her.  We  mount 
ed,  and  had  already  taken  the  road  to  Carleton-Hall,  when 
my  master  seemed  to  recollect  that  I  had  just  found  a  wife 
from  whom  I  had  been  long  separated  ;  and  it  began  to 
occur  to  him,  that  possibly  we  might  take  some  pleasure  in 
being  indulged  with  a  little  of  one  another's  company.  He 
gave  me  joy  of  my  discovery,  with  an  air  half  serious,  half 
jocose, — as  if  in  doubt  whether  a  slave  were  properly  enti 
tled  to  a  master's  serious  sympathy, — and  remarked,  in  a 
careless  tone,  that  perhaps  I  would  like  to  spend  the 
remainder  of  the  day  at  Poplar-Grove. 

As  I  knew  that  Mr  Carleton  had  much  real  goodness  of 
heart,  I  had  long  since  learned  to  put  up  with  his  cavalier 
manner ;  and  however  little  1  might  be  pleased  with  the 
style  in  which  he  made  the  offer,  the  matter  of  his 
present  proposal  was  so  much  to  my  fancy,  that  I  eagerly 


28  MEMOIRS    OF 

caught  at  it.  He  took  his  pencil  from  his  pocket,  and 
wrote  me  a  pass ;  I  asked  and  received  such  directions  as 
he  could  give  me  about  the  way ;  and  putting  spurs  to  my 
horse,  I  soon  overtook  Mrs  Montgomery's  carriage,  which  I 
followed  to  Poplar-Grove. 

This  was  one  of  those  pretty,  and  even  elegant  country 
seats,  which  are  sometimes  seen,  though  very  seldom,  in 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  ;  and  which  may  serve  to  prove 
that  the  inhabitants  of  those  states,  notwithstanding  their 
almost  universal  negligence  of  such  matters,  are  not  totally 
destitute  of  all  ideas  of  architectural  beauty  and  domestic 
comfort.  The  approach  to  the  house  was  through  a  broad 
avenue  of  old  and  venerable  oaks.  The  buildings  had  the 
appearance  of  considerable  antiquity  ;  but  they  were  in 
perfect  repair,  and  the  grounds  and  fences  were  neat  and 
well  kept. 

As  the  ladies  left  the  carriage,  I  came  up.  I  told  Mrs 
Montgomery  that  my  master  had  given  me  leave  to  visit 
my  wife,  and  I  hoped  she  would  have  no  objection  to  my 
spending  the  afternoon  there. 

Mrs  Slontgomery  answered,  that  Cassy  was  too  good  a 
girl  to  be  denied  any  reasonable  indulgence ;  and  as  long 
as  I  behaved  well,  she  would  never  make  any  objection  to 
my  coming  to  see  her.  She  put  me  several  questions  about 
our  marriage  and  separation  ;  and  the  softness  of  her  voice 
and  the  unassuming  gentleness  of  her  manner,  satisfied  me 
that  she  was  an  amiable  and  kind-hearted  woman. 

No  doubt,  through  the  broad  extent  of  slave-holding 
America,  there  are  many  amiable  women  and  kind-hearted 
mistresses.  Yet  how  little  does  their  kindness  avail !  It 
reaches  only  here  and  there.  It  has  no  power  to  alleviate 
the  wretchedness,  or  to  diminish  the  sufferings  of  myriads 
of  wretches,  who  never  hear  a  voice  softer  than  the  over 
seer's,  and  who  know  no  discipline  milder  than  the  lash. 

The  house  servants  at  Poplar-Grove,  were  treated  with 
kindness  and  even  with  indulgence,  and  were  much  at 
tached  to  the  family  ;  but  as  happens  in  so  many  other 
cases,  the  situation  of  the  field  hands  was  extremely  differ 
ent.  Some  three  years  before,  Mrs  Montgomery,  by  her  hus 
band's  death,  and  the  will  which  he  left,  became  the  owner 


ARCHY    MOORE.  29 

• 

and  sole  mistress  of  the  estate.  Upon  this  occasion,  her 
good  nature,  and  her  sense  of  justice,  prompted  her  to 
extend  the  same  humane  system  to  the  management  of  the 
plantation,  which  she  had  always  acted  upon,  in  the  gov 
ernment  of  her  own  household.  During  her  husband's  life, 
the  servants'  quarter  had  been  three  miles  or  more  from  the 
House  ;  and  as  the  slaves  were  never  allowed  to  come 
there,  unless  they  were  sent  for,  Mrs  Montgomery  saw 
scarcely  any  thing  of  them,  and  knew  very  little  of  their 
wants  and  grievances,  and  next  to  nothing  of  the  general 
management  of  the  estate.  Indeed  she  spent  the  greater 
portion  of  every  year,  in  visiting  her  relations  in  Virginia,  or 
in  trips  to  the  northern  cities  ;  and  when  at  home,  her 
husband's  manifest  disinclination  to  her  having  any  thing  to 
do  with  those  matters,  had  always  prevented  her  from  med 
dling  in  any  way,  with  the  plantation  affairs. 

But  when  her  husband  was  dead,  and  the  plantation  and 
slaves  had  become  her  own  property,  she  could  not  recon 
cile  herself  to  the  idea  of  taking  no  thought,  concern  or  care 
for  the  welfare  and  well-being  of  more  than  a  hundred 
human  creatures,  who  toiled  from  morning  to  night  for  her 
sole  benefit.  She  resolved  upon  a  total  change  of  system ; 
and  ordered  the  servants'  quarter  to  be  removed  near  the 
house,  so  that  she  might  be  able  to  go  there  daily,  and  have 
an  opportunity  of  inspecting  and  relieving  the  wants  and 
grievances  of  her  servants. 

She  was  shocked  at  the  miserable  pittance  of  food  and 
clothing  which  her  husband  had  allowed  them,  and  at  the 
amount  of  labor  which  he  had  exacted.  She  ordered  their 
allowances  to  be  increased,  and  their  tasks  to  be  diminished. 
Several  instances  of  outrageous  severity  having  reached  her 
ears,  she  dismissed  her  overseer  and  procured  a  new  one. 
The  servants  no  sooner  discovered  that  their  mistress  had 
interested  herself  in  their  welfare,  than  she  was  overwhelm 
ed  with  petitions,  appeals  and  complaints.  One  wanted  a 
blanket,  another  a  kettle,  and  a  third,  a  pair  of  shoes. 
Each  asked  for  some  trifling  gift,  which  it  seemed  very 
hard  to  refuse  ;  and  every  request  that  was  granted  was 
followed  by  half-a-dozen  others,  equally  trifling  and  equally 
reasonable.  But  before  the  end  of  the  year,  these 
3* 


30  MEMOIRS    OF 

items  amounted  to  a  sum  sufficient  to  swallow  up  half  the 
usual  profits  of  the  plantation.  Scarcely  a  day  passed,  that 
Mrs  Montgomery  was  not  pestered  with  complaints  about 
the  severity  of  her  new  overseer  ;  and  the  servants  were 
constantly  coming  to  her  to  beg  off  from  some  threatened 
punishment.  Two  or  three  instances  in  which  the  overseer 
was  checked  for  the  tyrannical  manner  in  which  he  exer 
cised  his  authority,  only  served  to  increase  this  annoyance. 
She  was  perplexed  with  continual  appeals,  as  to  which  she 
found  it  next  to  impossible  to  get  at  the  truth  ;  since  the 
overseer  always  told  one  story,  and  the  servants  another. 
The  second  overseer  was  dismissed;  a  third  threw  up  his 
place  in  disgust ;  and  a  fourth,  who  resolved  to  humor  the 
indulgent  disposition  of  his  employer,  suffered  the  hands  to 
lake  their  own  course  and  to  do  pretty  much  as  they 
pleased.  Of  course  they  did  not  care  to  work,  while  they 
had  the  choice  of  being  idle.  Every  season,  since  Mrs 
Montgomery  had  commenced  her  experiments,  the  crop  had 
fallen  lamentably  short ;  but  that  year,  there  was  scarcely 
any  crop  at  all. 

Her  friends  now  thought  it  time  to  interfere.  Her 
brother,  whom  she  loved,  and  for  whose  opinion  and  advice 
she  entertained  a  high  regard,  had  all  along,  remonstrated 
against  the  course  she  was  pursuing.  He  now  spoke  in  a 
more  decided  tone.  He  told  her,  that  the  silly  notions  she 
had  taken  up  about  the  happiness  of  her  slaves,  would  cer 
tainly  ruin  her.  Where  was  the  need  of  being  more  hu 
mane  than  her  neighbors  ? — and  what  folly  could  be  greater 
than  to  reduce  herself  and  her  children  to  beggary,  in  the 
vain  pursuit  of  a  sentimental  and  impracticable  scheme  ? 

Mrs  Montgomery  defended  herself  and  her  conduct  with 
great  earnestness.  She  pleaded  her  duty  towards  those 
unhappy  beings  whom  God  had  placed  in  her  power  and 
under  her  protection.  She  even  went  so  far  as  to  hint  at 
the  injustice  of  living  in  luxury  upon  the  fruits  of  forced 
labor;  and  she  spoke  with  much  feeling  of  the  savage  bru 
tality  of  overseers,  and  the  torture  of  the  lash.  Her  brother 
replied,  that  such  talk  was  very  pretty,  and  generous,  and 
philanthropic,  and  all  that ;  and  while  it  went  no  further 
than  talk,  he  had  not  the  least  objection  to  it.  But  pretty 


ARCHY    MOORE.  31 

and  philanthropic  as  it  was,  it  would  not  make  cither  corn 
or  tobacco.  She  might  talk  as  she  pleased ;  but  if  she  ex 
pected  to  live  by  her  plantation,  she  must  manage  it  like 
other  people.  Every  body  who  knew  any  thing  about  the 
matter  would  tell  her,  that  if  she  wished  to  make  a  crop  she 
must  keep  a  smart  overseer,  put  a  whip  into  his  hands,  and 
give  him  unlimited  authority  to  use  it.  If  she  would  do 
this,  she  might  justly  call  herself  the  mistress  of  the  planta 
tion  ;  but  as  long  as  she  followed  her  present  plan,  she 
would  be  no  better  than  the  slave  of  her  own  servants  ;  and 
her  philanthropy  would  end  in  their  being  sold  for  debt,  and 
in  her  being  left  a  beggar. 

These  warm  remonstrances  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  Mrs  Montgomery.  She  could  not  deny  that  the 
plantation  had  produced  scarcely  any  thing  since  she  had 
come  into  possession  of  it ;  and  she  was  conscious  that  after 
all  her  labors  in  their  behalf,  her  servants  were  discontent 
ed,  idle  and  insubordinate.  However,  she  did  not  feel 
inclined  to  yield  the  point.  She  still  maintained  that  her 
ideas  on  the  mutual  relation  of  master  and  servant,  were 
the  obvious  dictates  of  justice  and  humanity,  which  no  one 
could  despise  or  overlook,  who  made  any  pretensions  to 
v  irtue  or  to  conscience.  She  argued  that  the  system,  which 
she  was  attempting  to  introduce,  was  a  good  one ;  and  that 
nothing  was  wanting  except  an  overseer  who  had  sense 
enough  to  carry  it  into  judicious  operation.  Possibly  there 
was  something  of  truth  in  this.  If  she  could  have  found  a 
man  like  major  Thornton,  and  made  an  overseer  of  him, 
she  might  perhaps  have  succeeded.  But  such  men  are 
seldom  found  any  where,  and  in  slave-holding  America, 
very  seldom  indeed.  Take  the  American  overseers  to 
gether,  and  they  are  the  most  ignorant,  intractable,  stupid, 
obstinate,  and  self-willed  race  that  ever  existed.  What 
could  a  woman  do,  who  could  only  act  through  assistance 
of  this  sort,  and  who  had  the  prejudices  of  the  whole  neigh 
borhood  actively  excited  against  her  ?  Things  went  on  from 
bad  to  worse.  The  ready  money  which  her  husband  had 
left  was  all  spent,  and  her  affairs  soon  became  so  entangled 
and  embarrassed,  that  she  was  obliged  to  call  upon  her 
brother  for  assistance.  He  refused  in  the  most  positive 


32  MEMOIRS    OF 

manner,  to  have  any  thing  to  do  with  the  business,  unless 
she  would  surrender  to  him  the  sole  and  exclusive  manage 
ment  of  her  affairs.  To  these  hard  terms,  after  a  short  and 
ineffectual  struggle,  she  was  obliged  to  consent. 

He  immediately  took  the  plantation  into  his  own  hands. 
He  removed  the  cabins  to  their  former  situation ;  revived 
the  old  rule  that  no  servant  should  ever  go  to  the  House 
unless  specially  sent  for  ;  reduced  them  to  their  former  al 
lowance  of  food  and  clothing ;  and  engaged  an  overseer  on 
the  express  condition  that  Mrs  Montgomery  should  never 
listen  to  any  complaints  against  him,  or  intermeddle,  in  any 
way,  with  his  management  of  the  plantation. 

Within  the  first  month  after  this  return  to  the  old  system; 
near  one  third  of  the  working  hands  were  runaways.  Mrs 
Montgomery's  brother  told  her,  that  this  was  no  more  than 
might  be  expected  ;  for  the  rascals  had  been  so  spoiled  and 
indulged  as  to  render  them  quite  impatient  of  the  necessary 
and  wholesome  severity  of  plantation  discipline.  After 
long  searching,  and  a  good  deal  of  trouble  and  expense,  the 
runaways,  except  one  or  two,  were  finally  recovered  ;  and 
Poplar-Grove,  under  its  new  administration,  passed  by  de 
grees  to  its  ancient  routine  of  whipping  and  hard  labor. 
Once  in  a  while,  notwithstanding  all  the  pains  that  were 
taken  to  prevent  it,  some  instance  of  severity  would  reach 
the  ear  of  Mrs  Montgomery ;  and  in  the  first  burst  of  in- 
(dignant  feeling,  she  would  sometimes  declare,  that  the- 
/narrowest  poverty  would  be  far  better,  than  the  wealth  and 
'  luxury  for  which  she  was  indebted  to  the  whip  of  the  slave- 
driver.  But  these  exclamations  of  generous  passion  were 
scarcely  uttered,  before  she  acknowledged  to  herself,  that 
to  think  of  giving  up  the  luxury  to  which  she  had  been 
)  accustomed  from  her  infancy,  was  out  of  the  question.  She 
strove  to  escape  from  the  knowledge,  and  to  banish  the 
recollection  of  injustice  and  cruelty,  which  her  heart  con 
demned,  but  which  she  lacked  the  power,  or  rather  the 
spirit,  to  remedy.  She  fled  from  a  home,  where  she  was 
forever  haunted  by  the  spectre  of  that  delegated  tyranny, 
for  which,  however  she  might  attempt  to  deny  or  disguise 
it,  she  could  not  but  feel  herself  responsible ;  and  while  her 
slaves  toiled  beneath  the  burning  sun  of  a  Carolina  summer. 


ARCH*    MOORE.  33 

and  smarted  under  the  lash  of  a  stern  and  relentless  over 
seer,  she  attempted  to  drown  the  remembrance  of  their 
wrongs,  in  the  dissipations  and  gaieties  of  Saratoga  or 
New  York. 

But  she  was  obliged  to  spend  a  part  of  the  year  at  Pop 
lar-Grove  ;  and  with  all  her  care,  she  could  not  always 
save  her  feelings  from  some  rude  brushes.  Of  this  I  had 
a  striking  instance  on  my  first  visit.  One  of  her  plantation 
hands  had  been  so  far  indulged  by  the  overseer,  who,  by 
the  way,  was  a  very  rigid  presbyterian,  as  to  receive  a  pass 
to  attend  Mr  Carleton's  meeting.  After  the  meeting  was 
over,  his  mistress  happened  to  see  him  there ;  and  as  she 
wished  to  send  a  message  to  one  of  her  neighbors,  she  called 
him  to  her,  and  sent  him  with  it.  It  so  happened  that 
Mrs  Montgomery's  overseer,  was  at  this  neighbor's,  when 
the  servant  arrived  there  with  his  mistress's  message.  The 
overseer  no  sooner  saw  him,  than  he  inquired  what  business 
he  had  to  come  there,  when  his  pass  only  allowed  him  to 
go  to  the  meeting  and  back  again.  It  was  in  vain  that  he 
pleaded  his  mistress's  orders.  The  overseer  said  that  made 
no  difference  whatever ;  for  Mrs  Montgomery  had  nothing  at 
all  to  do  with  the  plantation  hands  ;  and  to  impress  this  fact 
upon  his  memory,  he  gave  him  a  dozen  lashes  on  the  spot. 

The  poor  fellow  was  bold  enough  to  come  to  the  House, 
and  make  his  complaint  to  Mrs  Montgomery.  Nothing 
could  exceed  her  anger  and  vexation.  But  her  agreement 
with  her  brother  left  her  without  a  remedy.  She  made  the 
servant  a  handsome  present ;  told  him  that  he  had  been 
very  unjustly  punished  ;  and  begged  him  to  go  home  and 
say  nothing  about  it  to  any  body.  She  submitted  to  the 
mortification  of  making  this  request,  in  hopes  of  saving  the 
poor  fellow  from  a  second  punishment.  But  by  some 
means  or  other,  as  I  learned  afterwards,  the  overseer  found 
out  what  had  been  going  on  ;  and  to  vindicate  his  supreme 
authority,  and  keep  up  the  discipline  of  the  plantation,  he 
inflicted  a  second  whipping  more  severe  than  the  first. 

Such  is  the  malignant  nature  and  disastrous  operation  of 
the  slave-holding  system,  that  in  too  many  instances,  the 
sheerest  good  will,  and  best  intended  efforts  in  the  slave's 
behalf,  end  only  in  plunging  him  into  deeper  miseries.  It 


34  MEMOIRS    OF 

is  impossible  to  build  any  edifice  of  good  upon  so  evil  a 
foundation.  The  whole  system  is  totally  and  radically 
wrong.  The  benevolence,  the  good  nature,  the  humanity 
of  a  slave-holder,  avail  as  little  as  the  benevolence  of  the 
bandit,  who  generously  clothes  the  stripped  and  naked  trav 
eller  in  a  garment  plundered  from  his  own  portmanteau. 
What  grosser  absurdity  than  the  attempt  to  be  humanely 
cruel,  and  generously  unjust !  The  very  first  act  in  the 
slave's  behalf,  without  which,  all  else  is  useless  and  worse 
than  useless,  is — to  make  him  free  ! 


CHAPTER    III. 

I  HAVE  before  observed  that  Sunday  is  the  slave's  holi 
day.  Where  intermarriages  are  allowed  between  the  slaves 
of  different  plantations,  this  is  generally  the  only  occasion 
on  which  the  scattered  branches  of  the  same  family  are  in 
dulged  with  an  opportunity  of  visiting  each  other.  Many 
planters, (who  pride  themselves  upon  the  excellence  of  their 
discipline,  forbid  these  intermarriages  altogether/ ;  and  if  they 
happen  to  have  a  superabundance  of  men-servants,  they 
prefer  that  one  woman  should  have  a  half-a-dozen  husbands 
rather  than  suffer  their  slaves  to  be  corrupted,  by  gadding 
about  among  other  people's  plantations. 

Other  managers,  just  as  good  disciplinarians,  and  a  little 
more .  shrewd  than  their  neighbors,  forbid  the  men  only  to 
marry  away  from  home.  They  are  very  willing  to  let  their 
women  get  husbands  where  they  can.  They  reason  in  this 
way.  When  a  husband  goes  to  see  his  wife,  who  lives 
upon  another  plantation,  he  will  not  be  apt  to  go  empty- 
handed.  He  will  carry  something  with  him,  probably 
something  eatable,  plundered  from  his  master's  fields,  that 
may  serve  to  make  him  welcome,  and  render  his  coming  a 
sort  of  festival.  Now  every  thing  that  is  brought  upon  a 
plantation  in  this  way,  is  so  much  clear  gain ;  and  so  far  as 
it  goes,  it  amounts  to  feeding  one's  people  at  the  expense 
of  one's  neighbors ! 


ARCHY   MOORE.  35 

Sunday,  as  I  have  said,  is  the  day  upon  which  are  paid 
the  matrimonial  visits  of  the  slave.  But  Sunday  was  no 
holiday  to  me  ;  for  I  was  generally  obliged,  on  that  day,  to 
attend  my  master  upon  his  ecclesiastical  excursions.  To 
make  up  for  this,  Mr  Carleton  allowed  me  Thursday  after 
noons,  so  that  I  was  able  to  visit  Gassy  at  least  once  a 
week. 

The  year  that  followed,  was  the  happiest  of  my  life  ;  and 
with  all  the  inevitable  mortifications  and  miseries,  which 
slavery,  even  under  its  least  repulsive  form,  ever  carries 
with  it,  I  still  look  back  to  that  year  with  pleasure, — a 
pleasure  that  yet  has  power  to  warm  a  heart,  saddened  and 
embittered  by  a  thousand  painful  recollections. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year,  Gassy  made  me  a  father. 
The  infant  boy  had  all  his  mother's  beauty ;  and  only  he 
who  is  a  father,  and  as  fond  a  husband  too  as  I  was,  can 
know  the  feelings  with  which  I  pressed  the  little  darling  to 
my  heart. 

No ! — no  one  can  know  my  feelings, — no  one,  alas,  but 
he,  who  is,  as  I  was,  the  father  of  a  slave.  The  father  of 
a  slave  ! — And  is  it  true  then,  that  this  child  of  my  hopes 
and  wishes,  this  pledge  of  mutual  love,  this  dear,  dear  infant 
of  whom  I  am  the  father,  is  it  true  he  is  not  mine  ? 

Is  it  not  my  duty  and  my  right,  a  right  and  duty  dearer 
than  life,  to  watch  over  his  helpless  infancy,  and  to  rear 
him  with  all  a  father's  tenderness  and  love,  to  a  manhood, 
that  will  perhaps  repay  my  care,  and  in  turn,  sustain  and 
cherish  me,  a  tottering  weak  old  man  ? 

My  duty  it  may  be ;  but  it  is  not  my  right.  A  slave 
can  have  no  rights.  His  wife,  his  child,  his  toil,  his  blood, 
his  life,  and  every  thing  that  gives  his  life  a  value,  they  are 
not  his  ;  he  holds  them  all  but  at  his  master's  pleasure. 
He  can  possess  nothing ;  and  if  there  is  any  thing  he  seems 
to  have,  it  is  only  by  a  sufferance  which  exists  but  in  his 
owner's  will. 

This  very  child,  this  very  tender  babe,  may  be  torn  from 
my  anus,  and  sold  to-morrow  into  the  hands  of  a  stranger, 
and  I  shall  have  no  right  to  interfere.  Or  if  not  so ;  if 
some  compassion  be  yielded  to  his  infancy,  and  if  he  be 
not  snatched  from  his  father's  embraces  and  his  mother's 


36  MEMOIRS    OP 

'bosom  while  he  is  yet  all  unconscious  of  his  misery,  yet 
what  a  sad,  wretched,  desolate  fate  awaits  him  !  Shut  out 
from  every  chance  or  hope  of  any  thing  which  it  is  worth 
one's  while  to  live  for ; — bred  up  a  slave ! 

A  slave  ! — That  single  word,  what  volumes  it  does  speak ! 
It  speaks  of  chains,  of  whips  and  tortures,  compulsive  labor, 
hunger  and  fatigues,  and  all  the  miseries  our  wretched 
bodies  suffer.  It  speaks  of  haughty  power,  and  insolent 
commands ;  of  insatiate  avarice  ;  of  pampered  pride  and 
purse-proud  luxury  ;  and  of  the  cold  indifference  and  scorn 
ful  unconcern  with  which  the  oppressor  looks  down  upon 
his  victims.  It  speaks  of  crouching  fear,  and  base  servility ; 
of  low,  mean  cunning,  and  treacherous  revenge.  It  speaks 
of  humanity  outraged ;  manhood  degraded ;  the  social 
charities  of  life,  the  sacred  ties  of  father,  wife  and  child 
trampled  under  foot ;  of  aspirations  crushed ;  of  hope  ex 
tinguished  ;  and  the  light  of  knowledge  sacrilegiously  put 
out.  It  speaks  of  man  deprived  of  all  that  makes  him 
amiable  or  makes  him  noble ;  stripped  of  his  soul,  and 
sunk  into  a  beast. 

And  thou,  my  child,  to  this  fate  thou  art  born  !  May 
heaven  have  mercy  on  thee,  for  man  has  none ! 

The  first  burst  of  instinctive  and  thoughtless  pleasure, 
with  which  I  had  looked  upon  my  infant  boy,  was  dissipa 
ted  forever,  the  moment  I  had  recovered  myself  enough  to 
recollect  what  he  was  born  to.  Various  and  ever  changing, 
but  always  wretched  and  distressing  were  the  feelings  with 
which  I  gazed  at  him,  as  he  slept  upon  his  mother's  bosom. 
or  waking,  smiled  at  her  caresses.  He  was  indeed  a  pretty 
baby ; — a  dear,  dear  child ; — and  for  his  mother's  sake  I 
loved  him,  how  I  loved  him  !  Yet  struggle  as  I  might,  I 
could  not,  for  a  moment,  escape  the  bitter  thought  of  what 
his  fate  must  be.  Full  well  I  knew  that  did  he  live  to  be 
a  man,  he  would  repay  my  love',  and  justly,  with  curses, 
curses  on  the  father  who  had  bestowed  upon  him  nothing 
but  a  life  incumbered  and  made  worse  than  worthless,  by 
the  inheritance  of  slavery. 

I  found  no  longer  the  same  pleasure  in  Cassy's  society, 
which  it  used  to  afford  me  ;  or  rather  the  pleasure  which  1 
could  not  but  take  in  it,  was  intermingled  with  much  new 


ARCHY   MOORE.  37 

misery.  I  did  not  love  her  less  ;  but  the  birth  of  that  boy 
had  infused  fresh  bitterness  into  the  cup  of  servitude. 
Whenever  I  looked  upon  him,  my  mind  was  filled  with 
horrid  images.  The  whole  future  seemed  to  come  visibly 
before  me.  I  saw  him  naked,  chained,  and  bleeding  under 
the  lash  ;  I  saw  him  a  wretched,  trembling  creature,  cringing 
to  escape  it ;  I  saw  him  utterly  debased,  and  the  spirit  of 
manhood  extinguished  within  him;  already  he  appeared 
that  worthless  thing, — a  slave  contented  with  his  fate ! 

I  could  not  bear  it.  I  started  up  in  a  phrensy  of  pas 
sion  ;  I  snatched  the  child  from  the  arms  of  his  mother,  and 
while  I  loaded  him  with  caresses,  t  looked  about  for  the 
means  of  extinguishing  a  life,  which,  as  it  was  an  emana 
tion  from  my  existence,  seemed  destined  to  be  only  a  pro 
longation  of  my  misery. 

My  eyes  rolled  wildly,  I  doubt  not ;  and  the  stern  spirit 
of  my  determination  must  have  been  visibly  marked  upon 
my  face ;  for  gentle  and  unsuspicious  as  she  was,  and 
wholly  incapable  of  that  wild  passion  which  tore  my  heart, 
my  wife,  with  a  mother's  instinctive  watchfulness,  seemed 
to  catch  some  glimpse  of  my  intention.  She  rose  up  hasti 
ly,  and  without  speaking  a  word,  she  caught  the  baby  from 
my  feeble  and  trembling  grasp ;  and  as  she  pressed  it  to 
her  bosom,  she  gave  a  look  that  told  me  all  that  she  feared  ; 
and  told  me  too,  that  the  mother's  life  was  bound  up  in  that 
of  the  child. 

That  look  subdued  me.  My  arms  dropped  powerless, 
and  I  sunk  down  in  a  sort  of  sullen  stupor.  I  had  been 
prevented  from  accomplishing  my  purpose,  but  I  was  not 
satisfied  that  in  foregoing  it,  I  did  a  father's  duty  to  the 
child.  The  more  I  thought  upon  it — and  it  so  engrossed 
me  that  I  could  scarcely  draw  my  thoughts  away, — the 
more  was  I  convinced  that  it  were  better  for  the  boy  to 
die.  And  if  the  deed  did  peril  my  own  soul,  I  loved  the 
child  so  well  I  did  not  shrink,  even  at  that ! 

But  then  his  mother  ? 

I  would  have  reasoned  with  her ;  but  I  knew  how  vain 
would  be  the  labor  to  array  a  woman's  judgment  against  a 
mother's  feelings ;  and  I  felt,  that  one  tear  stealing  down 
her  cheek,  one  look  of  hers,  like  that  she  gave  me  when 

VOL.  II.  4 


38  MEMOIRS     OF 

she  snatched  the  child  away,  would,  even  in  my  own  mind, 
far  outbalance  the  weightiest  of  my  arguments. 

The  idea  of  rescuing  the  boy,  by  one  bold  act,  from  all 
the  bitter  miseries  that  impended  over  him,  had  shot  upon 
my  mind,  like  some  faint  struggling  star  across  the  darkness 
of  a  midnight  storm.  But  that  glimmer  of  comfort  was 
now  extinguished.  The  child  must  live.  The  life  I  gave 
him,  I  must  not  take  away.  No !  not  though  every  day 
of  it  would  draw  new  curses  on  my  devoted  head, — and 
those  too,  the  curses  of  my  child.  This,  this  alas !  is  the 
barbed  arrow  that  still  is  sticking  in  my  heart ;  the  fatal, 
fatal  wound,  that  nought  can  heal. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ONE  Sunday  morning  when  the  boy  was  about  three 
months  old,  two  strangers  unexpectedly  arrived  at  Carle- 
ton-Hall.  In  consequence  of  their  coming,  some  urgent 
business  occupied  my  master's  attention,  so  that  he  found 
himself  obliged  to  give  up  the  meeting  which  he  had 
appointed  for  that  day.  I  was  not  sorry  for  it ;  for  it  left 
me  at  liberty  to  visit  my  wife  and  child. 

It  was  the  autumn.  The  heat  of  summer  had  abated, 
and  the  morning  was  bright  and  balmy.  There  was  a 
soothing  softness  in  the  air ;  and  the  woods  were  clothed  in 
a  gay  variety  of  colors,  that  almost  outvied  the  foliage  of  the 
spring.  As  I  rode  along  towards  Poplar-Grove,  the  seren 
ity  of  the  sky,  and  the  beauty  of  the  prospect,  seemed  to 
breathe  a  jfeaceful  pleasure  to  my  heart.  It  was  the  more 
needed  ;  for  I  had  been  a  good  deal  irritated  by  some 
occurrences  during  the  week ;  and  every  new  indignity  to 
which  my  situation  exposed  me,  I  now  seemed  to  suffer 
twice  over,  once  in  my  own  person,  and  a  second  time,  in 
anticipation  for  my  child.  I  had  set  out  in  no  very  agree 
able  frame  of  mind  ;  but  the  ride,  the  prospect,  and  the 
fine  autumnal  air,  had  soothed  me  into  a  cheerful  alacrity 
of  spirit,  such  as  I  had  hardly  felt  for  some  weeks  before. 


ARCHY  MOORE.  39 

Cassy  welcomed  me  with  a  ready  smile,  and  those  ca 
resses  which  a  fond  wife  bestows  so  freely  on  the  husband 
whom  she  loves.  Her  mistress,  the  day  before,  had  given 
her  some  new  clothes  for  the  child,  and  she  had  just  been 
dressing  him  out,  to  make  the  little  fellow  fit,  she  said,  to 
see  his  father.  She  brought  the  boy  and  placed  him  on 
my  knee.  She  praised  his  beauty  ;  and  with  her  arm 
about  my  neck,  she  tried  to  trace  his  father's  features  in  the 
baby's  face.  In  the  full  flow  of  a  mother's  fond  affection 
she  seemed  unconscious  and  forgetful  of  the  future ;  and  by 
a  thousand  tender  caresses,  and  all  the  little  artifices  of  a 
woman's  love,  she  sought  to  make  me  forget  it  too.  She 
had  but  little  success.  The  sight  of  that  poor,  smiling, 
helpless  and  unconscious  child,  brought  back  all  my  melan 
choly  feelings.  Yet  I  could  not  bear  to  disappoint  my 
wife's  hopes  and  efforts  ;  and  to  make  her  think  herself 
successful,  I  strove  to  affect  a  cheerfulness  I  did  not  feel. 

The  beauty  of  the  day  tempted  us  abroad.  We  walked 
among  the  fields  and  woods,  carrying  the  child  by  turns. 
Cassy  had  a  hundred  little  things  to  tell  me  of  the  first 
slight  indications  of  intelligence  which  the  boy  was  giving. 
She  spoke  with  all  a  mother's  fluency  and  fervor.  I  said 
but  little  ;  indeed  I  hardly  dared  to  speak  at  all.  Had  I 
once  begun,  I  could  not  have  restrained  myself  from  going 
on  ;  and  I  did  not  wish  to  poison  her  pleasure,  by  an  out 
pouring  of  that  bitterness  which  I  felt  bubbling  up,  at  the 
bottom  of  my  heart. 

The  hours  stole  away  insensibly,  and  the  svm  was  already 
declining.  I  had  my  master's  orders  to  be  back  that  night ; 
und  it  was  time  for  me  to  go.  I  clasped  the  infant  to  my 
heart.  I  kissed  Cassy 's  cheek  and  pressed  her  hand.  She 
seemed  not  satisfied  with  so  cold  a  parting  ;  for  site  threw 
her  arms  about  my  neck  and  loaded  me  with  embraces. 
This  was  so  different  from  her  usual  coy  and  timid  manner, 
that  I  was  at  a  loss  to  understand  it.  Is  it  possible  that  she 
felt  some  instinctive  presentiment  of  what  was  going  to  hap 
pen  ?  Did  the  thought  dart  across  her  mind,  that  this  might 
be  our  last,  our  final  parting  ? 


40  MEMOIRS    OF 


CHAPTER  V. 

WHEN  I  got  back  to  Carleton-Hall,  I  found  every  thing 
in  the  greatest  confusion.  It  was  not  long  before  I  was 
made  acquainted  with  the  cause.  It  seemed  that  some 
twelve  months  previous,  Mr  Carleton  had  found  himself 
very  much  pressed  for  money.  This  had  obliged  him  to 
look  a  little  into  his  affairs.  He  found  himself  burdened 
with  a  load  of  debt  of  which  before,  he  had  no  definite 
idea  ;  and  as  his  numerous  creditors,  who  had  been  too 
long  put  off  with  promises,  were  beginning  to  be  very  clam 
orous,  he  saw  that  some  vigorous  remedy  was  necessary. 
To  borrow,  seemed  the  most  certain  means  of  relief  from 
the  immediate  pressure  of  his  debts  ;  and  he  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  large  loan  from  some  Baltimore  money-lenders, 
of  which  he  secured  the  repayment  by  a  mortgage  upon  his 
slaves,  including  even  the  house  servants,  and  myself  among 
the  number.  This  money  he  expended  in  satisfying  seve 
ral  executions,  which  had  already  issued  against  him  ;  and 
in  stopping  the  mouths  of  the  most  clamorous  of  his  credit 
ors.  The  money  was  borrowed  for  a  year ;  not  with  any 
expectation  on  Mr  Carleton's  part,  of  being  able  to  repay  it 
in  that  time,  out  of  any  funds  of  his  own  ;  but  in  the  hope 
that  before  the  year's  end,  he  might  succeed  in  obtaining  a 
permanent  loan,  and  so  be  enabled  to  cancel  the  mortgage. 

In  this  expectation,  he  had  hitherto  been  disappointed ; 
and  he  was  yet  negotiating  with  the  persons  from  whom  he 
expected  to  borrow,  when  the  time  of  repayment,  mentioned 
in  the  mortgage,  expired.  This  happened  about  a  month 
previous ;  and  when  I  got  back  to  Carleton-Hall,  I  found 
that  the  strangers  who  had  arrived  that  morning,  were  the 
agents  of  the  Baltimore  money-lenders,  who  had  been  sent 
to  take  possession  of  the  mortgaged  property.  They  had 
already  caught  as  many  of  the  slaves  as  they  could  find ; 
and  I  no  sooner  entered  the  house,  than  I  was  seized,  and 
put  under  a  guard.  These  precautions  were  thought  neces 
sary  to  prevent  the  slaves  from  running  away,  or  concealing 
themselves  from  the  agents  of  their  new  owners. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  41 

My  poor  master  was  in  the  greatest  distress  and  embar 
rassment  that  could  be  imagined.  It  was  in  vain  that  he 
begged  for  delay,  and  proposed  various  terms  of  accommo 
dation.  The  agents  declared  that  they  had  no  discretion 
in  the  matter;  they  were  instructed  to  get  either  the  money 
or  the  slaves  ;  and  in  case  the  money  was  not  forthcoming, 
to  proceed  with  the  slaves  to  Charleston,  in  South  Carolina, 
which,  at  that  time,  was  esteemed  the  best  market  for  dis 
posing  of  that  commodity. 

As  to  paying  the  money  at  once,  that  was  out  of  the 
question  ;  but  Mr  Carleton  hoped  that  he  might  be  able  in 
the  course  of  a  few  days,  if  not  to  obtain  the  loan  for  which 
he  was  negotiating,  at  least  to  get  such  temporary  assistance 
as  would  enable  him  to  discharge  the  mortgage.  The 
agents  agreed  to  give  him  twenty-four  hours,  but  refused  to 
wait  any  longer.  Mr  Carleton  despaired  of  doing  any 
thing  in  so  short  a  time  ;  and  did  not  think  it  worth  his 
while  to  attempt  it.  The  plantation  hands  must  go ;  there 
did  not  seem  to  be  any  remedy  for  that ;  but  he  was  very 
desirous  to  save  his  house  servants  from  the  slave-market, 
and  he  begged  the  agents  not  to  leave  him  without  a  ser 
vant  to  make  his  bed  or  cook  his  dinner. 

The  agents  replied  that  they  were  truly  sorry  for  the 
disagreeable  situation  in  which  he  found  himself;  but  that, 
since  the  mortgage  was  made,  several  of  the  slaves  included 
in  the  schedule  were  dead ;  that  some  of  the  others  seemed 
hardly  worth  the  sum  at  which  they  had  been  valued ;  that 
the  price  of  slaves  had  fallen  considerably  since  the  mort 
gage  was  made,  and  seemed  likely  to  fall  more ;  and  that 
every  thing  considered,  they  thought  it  more  than  doubtful 
whether  the  mortgaged  property  would  be  sufficient  to  sat 
isfy  the  debt.  However,  they  were  desirous  to  indulge 
him  as  far  as  their  duty  to  their  principals  would  allow ;  and 
if  he  would  pay  the  value  of  such  of  the  slaves  as  he  wished 
to  retain,  they  had  no  objections  to  receive  the  money 
instead  of  the  servants. 

Mr  Carleton  had  not  fifty  dollars  in  the  house  ;  but  he 

immediately  started  off  to  see  what  he  could  borrow  in  the 

neighborhood.     Wherever  he  went,  he  found  that  the  news 

of  what  had  happened,  had  preceded  him.     Besides  this 

4* 


42  MEMOIRS    OF 

Baltimore  mortgage,  he  was  known  to  owe  many  other 
debts  ;  and  his  neighbors  generally  looked  upon  him  as  a 
ruined  man.  Of  course,  the  greater  part  of  them  felt  no 
inclination  to  lend  him  their  money  ;  and  in  fact,  very 
many  of  them  were  not  so  much  better  ofT  than  Mr  Carle- 
ton  as  to  have  much  money  to  lend.  After  riding  about 
the  greater  part  of  the  day,  he  succeeded  in  borrowing  a 
few  hundred  dollars,  on  condition  however,  that  he  should 
secure  the  repayment  by  a  mortgage  of  such  slaves  as  he 
should  redeem.  He  had  returned  to  the  house  a  little 
before  I  did,  and  was  already  considering  with  himself 
which  of  his  slaves  he  should  retain.  He  told  me  that  I 
had  been  a  good  and  trust-worthy  servant;  and  that  he  was 
very  unwilling  to  part  with  me.  But  he  had  not  money 
enough  to  redeem  us  all ;  and  his  old  nurse  and  her  family 
were  entitled  to  be  retained  in  preference  to  any  of  the  rest 
of  us.  Not  only  were  their  services  the  most  essential  to 
him,  but  the  mother  had  long  been  a  favorite  servant,  her 
children  were  born  and  bred  in  his  family,  and  he  consid 
ered  it  a  matter  of  conscience  to  keep  them,  at  all  events. 
The  agents  released  those  of  the  servants  whom  he  selected. 
The  rest  of  us  were  kept  confined,  and  received  notice  to 
be  ready  for  a  start,  early  the  next  morning. 

I  had  yet  one  hope.  I  thought  if  Mrs  Montgomery 
could  be  informed  of  my  situation  she  would  certainly  buy 
me.  I  mentioned  it  to  my  master.  He  told  me  not  to 
flatter  myself  too  much  with  that  idea  ; — for  Mrs  Mont 
gomery  already  had  more  servants  about  her  house  than  she 
had  any  kind  of  use  for.  However,  he  readily  undertook 
to  write  her  a  note  explaining  my  situation.  It  was  de 
spatched  by  a  servant,  and  I  waited  with  impatient  hope  for 
the  answer. 

At  last  the  messenger  returned.  Mrs  Montgomery  and 
her  daughter  had  gone  that  morning  to  visit  her  brother, 
who  lived  some  ten  miles  from  Poplar-Grove,  and  they 
were  expected  to  be  absent  three  or  four  days.  1  believe  I 
had  heard  something  of  this  in  the  morning  ;  but  in  my 
hurry,  confusion  and  excitement,  it  had  escaped  my 
memory. 

My  last  hope  was  now  gone  ;  and  as  it  went,  the  shock 


ARCHY   MOORE.  43 

I  felt  was  dreadful.  Till  that  moment,  I  had  concealed 
from  myself,  the  misery  of  my  situation.  I  had  been 
familiar  with  calamity,  hut  this  exceeded  any  thing  I  had 
ever  suffered.  It  is  true,  I  had  once  before  been  separated 
from  my  wife ;  but  my  bodily  pains,  my  delirium  and  fever 
had  helped  to  blunt  the  agony  of  that  separation.  Now,  I 
was  torn  from  both  wife  and  child ! — and  that  too,  without 
any  thing  to  call  off  my  attention,  or  to  deaden  the  torture 
of  conscious  agony.  My  heart  swelled  with  impotent  pas 
sion,  and  beat  as  though  it  would  leap  from  my  bosom. 
My  forehead  glowed  with  a  burning  heat.  I  would  have 
wept ;  but  even  that  relief  was  denied  me.  The  tears 
refused  to  flow  ;  the  fever  in  my  brain  had  parched  them 
up. 

My  first  impulse  was,  to  attempt  making  my  escape. 
But  my  new  masters  were  too  well  acquainted  with  the 
business  of  legal  kidnapping,  to  give  me  an  opportunity. 
We  were  all  collected  in  one  of  the  out-houses,  and  care 
fully  secured.  With  many  of  the  plantation  hands,  this 
was  quite  an  unnecessary  precaution.  A  large  proportion 
of  them  were  so  sick  and  weary  of  the  tyranny  of  Mr 
Carleton's  overseer,  that  they  were  glad  of  any  change ; 
and  when  their  master  made  them  a  farewell  visit,  and 
began  to  condole  with  them  upon  their  misfortune,  several 
of  them  were  bold  enough  to  tell  him  that  they  thought  it  no 
misfortune  at  all  ;  for  whatever  might  happen,  they  could 
not  be  worse  treated  than  they  had  been  by  his  overseer. 
Mr  Carleton  seemed  not  well  pleased  at  this  bold  disclo 
sure,  and  took  his  leave  of  us  rather  abruptly ;  and  certainly 
this  piece  of  information  could  not  have  been  very  soothing 
to  his  feelings. 

At  early  dawn  we  were  put  into  travelling  order.  A 
wagon  earned  the  provisions  and  the  younger  children. 
The  rest  of  us  were  chained  together,  and  proceeded  in  the 
usual  fashion. 

It  was  a  long  journey,  and  we  were  two  or  three  weeks 
upon  the  road.  Considering  that  we  were  slaves  driven  to 
market,  we  were  treated  on  the  whole,  with  unexpected 
humanity.  At  the  end  of  the  third  or  fourth  day's  journey, 
the  women  and  children  were  released  from  their  chains ; 


44  MEMOIRS    OF 

and  two  or  three  days  later,  a  part  of  the  men  received  the 
same  indulgence.  Those  of  us,  of  whom  they  were  more 
suspicious,  were  still  kept  in  irons.  Our  drivers  seemed 
desirous  to  enhance  our  value  by  putting  us  into  good  con 
dition.  Our  daily  journey  was  quite  moderate  ;  we  were 
all  furnished  with  shoes,  and  were  allowed  plenty  to  eat. 
At  night  we  encamped  by  the  road-side  ;  kindled  a  large 
fire,  cooked  our  hominy,  and  made  a  hut  of  branches  to 
sleep  under.  Several  of  the  company  declared  that  they 
were  never  so  well  treated  in  all  their  lives  ;  and  they  went 
along  laughing  and  singing  more  like  men  travelling  for 
pleasure,  than  like  slaves  going  to  be  sold.  So  little  accus 
tomed  is  the  slave  to  kindness  or  indulgence  of  any  sort, 
that  the  merest  trifle  is  enough  to  put  him  into  ecstasy. 
The  gift  of  a  single  extra  meal  is  sufficient  to  make  him 
fall  in  love  even  with  a  slave-driver. 

The  songs  and  laughter  of  my  companions  only  served 
to  aggravate  my  melancholy.  They  observed  it,  and  did 
their  best  to  cheer  me.  There  never  was  a  kinder-hearted 
company,  and  I  found  some  relief  even  in  their  rude  efforts 
at  consolation  ;  for  there  is  more  power  in  the  sympathy  of 
the  humblest  human  creature  than  the  haughty  children  of 
luxury  are  apt  to  believe.  I  was  a  favorite  among  the 
servants  at  Carleton-Hall,  because  I  had  taken  some  little 
pains  to  be  so ;  for  I  had  long  since  renounced  that  silly 
prejudice  and  foolish  pride,  which  at  an  earlier  period,  had 
kept  me  aloof  from  my  fellow  servants,  and  had  justly 
earned  me  their  hatred  and  dislike.  Experience  had  made 
me  wiser ;  and  I  no  longer  took  sides  with  our  oppressors 
by  joining  them  in  the  false  notion  of  their  own  natural 
superiority ; — a  notion  founded  only  in  the  arrogant  preju 
dice  of  conceited  ignorance,  and  long  since  discarded  by 
the  liberal  and  enlightened  ;  but  a  notion  which  is  still  the 
orthodox  creed  of  all  America,  and  the  principal,  I  might 
almost  say  the  sole  foundation,  which  sustains  the  iniqui 
tous  superstructure  of  American  slavery.  I  had  made  it  a 
point  to  gain  the  good  will  and  affection  of  my  fellow  ser 
vants,  by  mixing  among  them  ;  taking  an  interest  in  all 
their  concerns  ;  and  rendering  them  such  little  services  as 
my  favor  with  Mr  Carleton  put  in  my  power.  Once  or 


ARCHY   MOORE.  45 

twice  indeed,  I  had  overstepped  the  mark,  and  got  myself 
into  very  serious  trouble  by  letting  my  master  know  what 
severities  his  overseer  inflicted.  But  though  my  attempts 
at  serving  them  were  not  always  successful,  their  gratitude 
was  not  the  less  on  that  account. 

When  my  companions  observed  my  melancholy  they 
stopped  their  songs,  and  having  run  through  their  few  topics 
of  condolence,  they  continued  their  conversation  in  a  sub 
dued  and  moderated  tone,  as  if  unwilling  to  irritate  my 
feeling  by  what  might  seem  to  me,  unseasonable  merriment. 
I  saw,  and  in  my  heart  acknowledged  the  kindness  of  their 
intention  ;  but  I  did  not  wish  that  my  sadness  should  cast 
a  shade  over  what  they  enjoyed  as  a  holiday, — the  only 
holiday  perhaps  which  their  miserable  fate  would  ever  allow 
them.  I  told  them  that  nothing  would  be  so  likely  to  cheer 
me,  as  to  see  them  merry ;  and  though  my  heart  was  aching 
and  ready  almost  to  burst,  I  forced  a  laugh,  and  started  a 
song.  The  rest  joined  in  it ;  the  chorus  rose  again  loud  as 
ever ;  the  laugh  went  round ;  and  the  turbulence  of  their  mer 
riment  soon  allowed  me  to  sink  again  into  a  moody  silence. 

I  had  the  natural  feelings  of  a  man  ;  I  loved  my  wife  and 
child.  Had  they  been  snatched  from  me  by  death,  or  had  I 
been  separated  from  them,  by  some  fixed,  inevitable,  natural 
necessity,  I  should  have  wept,  no  doubt,  but  my  feelings 
would  have  been  those  of  simple  grief,  unmixed  with  any 
more  bitter  emotion.  But  that  the  dear  ties  of  husband 
and  father,  ties  so  twined  about  my  inmost  heart,  should  be 
thus  violently  severed,  without  a  moment's  warning,  and  at 
a  creditor's  caprice ;  and  he  too  the  creditor  of  another ; 
to  be  thus  chained  up,  torn  from  my  home,  and  driven  to 
market,  there  to  be  sold  to  pay  the  debts  of  a  man  who 
called  himself  my  master ; — the  thoughts  of  this  stirred  up 
within  my  soul  a  bitter  hatred  and  a  burning  indignation 
against  the  laws  and  the  people  that  tolerate  such  things ; 
fierce  and  deadly  passions  which  tore  my  heart,  distracted 
and  tormented  me,  even  more  than  my  grief  at  the  sudden 
separation. 

But  the  more  violent  emotions  ever  tend  to  cure  them 
selves.  If  the  patient  survive  the  first  paroxysm,  his  mind 
speedily  begins  to  verge  towards  its  natural  equilibrium.  1 


4t>  MEMOIRS    OF 

found  it  so.  The  torture  of  furious  but  impotent  emotions 
at  first  almost  overpowered  me.  But  my  feelings  softened 
by  degrees ;  till,  at  length,  they  subsided  into  a  dull,  but 
fixed  and  settled  misery  ;  a  misery  which  the  impulse  of 
temporary  excitement  may  sometimes  make  me  forget,  but 
which,  like  the  guilty  man's  remorse,  is  too  deeply  rooted 
to  be  ever  eradicated. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

AT  length  we  arrived  at  Charleston,  the  capital  of  South 
Carolina.  We  spent  several  days  in  recruiting  ourselves 
after  our  long  journey.  As  soon  as  we  had  recovered  from 
our  lameness  and  fatigues,  we  were  dressed  up  in  new 
clothes,  and  fitted  out  to  show  off  to  the  best  advantage. 
We  were  then  exposed  for  the  inspection  of  purchasers. 
The  women  and  children,  pleased  with  their  new  finery, 
seemed  to  enjoy  the  novelty  of  their  situation,  and  appeared 
as  anxious  to  find  a  master  and  to  bring  a  high  price,  as 
though  the  bargain  were  actually  for  their  own  benefit. 
The  greater  part  of  our  company  were  bought  up  by  a 
single  purchaser,  and  I  among  the  rest.  We  were  pur 
chased  by  general  Carter,  a  man  of  princely  fortune,  indeed 
one  of  the  richest  planters  in  South  Carolina ;  and  were 
immediately  sent  off  to  one  of  his  plantations,  at  some 
distance  from  the  city. 

The  lower  country  of  South  Carolina,  from  the  Atlantic 
for  eighty  or  a  hundred  miles  inward,  including  more  than 
half  the  state,  is,  with  the  exception  I  shall  presently  men 
tion,  one  of  the  most  barren,  miserable,  uninviting  countries 
in  the  universe.  In  general,  the  soil  is  nothing  but  a 
thirsty  sand,  covered  for  miles  and  miles,  with  forests  of 
the  long-leaved  pine.  These  tracts  are  called,  in  the  ex 
pressive  phrase  of  the  country,  Pine  Barrens.  For  a 
great  distance  inland,  these  Barrens  preserve  almost  a 
perfect  level,  raised  but  a  few  feet  above  the  surface  of  the 
sea.  The  tall,  straight,  branchless  trunks  of  the  scattered 


ARCHY   MOORE.  47 

pines,  rise  like  slender  columns,  and  are  crowned  with  a 
tuft  of  knarly  limbs  and  long,  bristly  leaves,  through  which 
the  breezes  murmur  with  a  monotonous  sound,  much  like 
that  of  falling  waters,  or  waves  breaking  on  a  beach. 
There  is  rarely  any  undergrowth,  and  the  surface  is  either 
matted  with  the  saw-palmetto,  a  low  ever-green,  or  covered 
with  a  coarse  and  scattered  grass,  on  which  herds  of  half- 
wild  cattle  feed  in  summer,  and  starve  in  winter.  The 
trunks  of  the  pines  scarcely  interrupt  a  prospect,  whose 
tedious  sameness  is  only  varied  by  tracts,  here  and  there, 
of  almost  impenetrable  swamp,  thickly  grown  up  with  bays, 
water  oaks,  cypresses  and  other  large  trees,  adown  whose 
spreading  branches  and  whitened  trunks,  a  long  dusky  moss 
hangs  in  melancholy  festoons,  drooping  to  the  ground,  the 
very  drapery  of  disease  and  death.  The  rivers,  which  are 
wide  and  shallow,  swollen  with  the  heavy  rains  of  spring 
and  winter,  frequently  overflow  their  low  and  marshy  banks, 
and  help  to  increase  the  extent  of  swampy  ground, — the 
copious  source  of  poisonous  vapors  and  febrile  exhalations. 
Even  where  the  country  begins  to  rise  into  hills,  it  pre 
serves,  for  a  long  distance,  its  sterile  character.  It  is  a  col 
lection  of  sandy  hillocks  thrown  together  in  the  strangest 
confusion.  In  several  places,  not  even  the  pine  will  grow ; 
and  the  barren  and  thirsty  soil,  is  clothed  only  with  stunted 
bushes  of  the  black  jack,  or  dwarf  oak.  In  some  spots 
even  these  are  wanting ;  and  the  bare  sand  is  drifted  by 
the  winds. 

Throughout  this  extent  of  country,  of  which,  with  all  its 
barrenness,  a  great  part  might  be,  and  by  the  enterprising 
spirit  of  free  labor  doubtless  would  be,  brought  into  profit 
able  cultivation,  there  are  only  some  small  tracts,  principally 
along  the  water  courses,  which  the  costly  and  thriftless 
system  of  slave  labor  has  found  capable  of  improvement. 
All  the  rest  still  remains  a  primitive  wilderness,  with  scarcely 
any  thing  to  interrupt  its  desolate  and  dreary  monotony. 

This  description  does  not  include  the  tract  stretching 
along  the  sea-shore,  from  the  mouth  of  the  San  tee  to  that 
of  the  Savannah,  and  extending  in  some  places,  twenty  or 
thirty  miles  up  the  country.  The  coast  between  these 
rivers,  is  a  series  of  islands ; — the  famous  sea-islands  of  the 


48  MEMOIRS    OF 

cotton  markets;  and  the  main  land,  which  is  separated  from 
these  islands  by  innumerable  narrow  and  winding  channels, 
is  penetrated,  for  some  distance  inland,  by  a  vast  number  of 
creeks  and  inlets.  The  islands  present  a  bluff  shore  and  a 
fine  beach  towards  the  ocean,  but  the  opposite  sides  are  often 
low  and  marshy.  They  were  originally  covered  with  a 
magnificent  growth  of  the  live,  or  ever-green  oak,  one  of  the 
finest  trees  anywhere  to  be  seen.  The  soil  is  light ;  but  it 
possesses  a  fertility  never  yet  attained  in  the  dead  and  bar 
ren  sands  of  the  interior.  These  lands  are  protected  by 
embankments  from  the  tides  and  floods,  and  the  fields  are. 
divided  and  drained  by  frequent  dikes  and  ditches.  Such 
of  them  as  can  be  most  conveniently  irrigated  with  fresh 
water,  are  cultivated  as  rice-fields ; — the  remainder  are  em 
ployed  in  the  production  of  the  long  staple,  or  sea-island 
cotton, — a  species  of  vegetable  wool,  which  excels  every 
other  in  the  length  of  its  fibre,  and  almost  rivals  silk  in 
strength  and  softness. 

These  beautiful  districts  present  a  strong  contrast  to  the 
rest  of  the  lower  country  of  South  Carolina.  As  far  as  the 
eye  can  stretch,  nothing  is  to  be  seen  but  a  smooth,  level, 
nighly-cultivated  country,  penetrated  in  every  direction  by 
creeks  and  rivers.  The  residences  of  the  planters  are  often 
handsome  buildings,  placed  on  some  fine  swell,  and  shaded 
by  a  choice  variety  of  trees  and  shrubbery.  These  houses 
are  inhabited  by  their  owners  only  in  the  winter.  They 
are  driven  from  home  in  the  summer,  partly  by  the  tire 
someness  of  a  listless  and  monotonous  indolence,  and  partly, 
by  the  unhealthiness  of  the  climate,  which  is  much  aggra 
vated  by  the  rice  cultivation.  This  absentee  aristocracy 
congregates  in  Charleston,  or  dazzles  and  astonishes  the 
cities  and  watering  places  of  the  North,  by  its  profuse  ex 
travagance  and  reckless  dissipation.  The  plantations  are 
left  to  the  sole  management  of  overseers,  who,  with  their 
families,  form  almost  the  only  permanent  free  population  of 
these  districts.  The  slaves  are  ten  times  as  numerous  as 
the  free.  The  whole  of  this  rich  and  beautiful  country  is 
devoted*  to  the  support  of  a  few  hundred  families  in  a  lordly, 
luxurious,  dissipated  indolence,  which  renders  them  useless 
to  the  world  and  a  burden  to  themselves  ;  and  to  contribute 


ARCHY    MOORE.  49 

towards  this  same  great  end,  more  than  a  hundred  thousand 
human  beings  are  sunk  into  the  very  lowest  depths  of  deg 
radation  and  misery. 

General  Carter,  our  new  master,  was  one  of  the  richest 
of  these  American  grandees.  The  plantation  to  which  we 
\vere  sent,  was  called  Loosahachee  ;  and  though  very  ex 
tensive,  was  but  one  out  of  several,  which  he  owned. 
Coming  as  I  did  from  Virginia,  there  were  many  things  in 
the  appearance  of  the  country,  and  in  the  way  in  which 
tilings  were  managed,  that  were  entirely  new  to  me. 

I  and  my  companions  who  had  always  been  accustomed 
to  some  small  quantity  of  meat  as  a  relish  to  our  corn  diet, 
found  our  mere  unseasoned  hominy  neither  so  palatable  nor 
so  nourishing  as  we  could  wish.  Being  strangers  and  new 
comers,  we  had  not  yet  learned  the  customs  of  the  country  ; 
and  were  quite  unacquainted  with  many  of  the  arts  by  which 
the  Carolina  slaves  are  enabled  to  eke  out  their  scanty  and 
insufficient  allowance.  Our  only  resource  was  an  appeal  to 
our  master's  generosity  ;  and  it  happened,  that  about  a  fort 
night  after  we  were  put  upon  the  plantation,  general  Carter,, 
with  several  of  his  friends,  made  a  flying  visit  from  Charles 
ton  to  Loosahachee,  to  see  how  the  crops  were  coming  on. 
This  we  thought  to  be  a  good  opportunity  to  get  some  im 
provement  of  our  fare.  We  did  not  like  to  ask  too  much, 
lest  our  request  should  be  rejected  without  ceremony.  In 
deed,  we  determined  to  be  as  moderate  as  possible ;  and 
after  due  consultation,  it  was  resolved  to  petition  our  master 
for  a  little  salt  to  season  our  hominy, — a  luxury  to  which 
we  had  always  been  accustomed,  but  which  was  not 
included  in  the  Loosahachee  allowance,  which  consisted 
simply  of  corn,  a  peck  a  week  to  each  working  hand.  My 
companions  requested  me  to  act  as  spokesman,  and  I  read 
ily  undertook  to  do  so. 

When  general  Carter  and  his  friends  came  near  my  task. 
I  walked  towards  him.  He  asked  me  what  I  meant  by 
leaving  rny  work  in  that  fashion,  and  inquired  what  I  want 
ed  ?  I  told  him  that  I  was  one  of  the  servants  whom  he 
had  lately  purchased  ;  that  some  of  us  were  born  and  raised 
in  Virginia  and  the  rest  in  North  Carolina ;  that  we 
were  not  used  to  living  upon  bare  hominy  without  any 

VOL.    II.  5 


50  MEMOIRS    OF 

thing  to  give  it  a  relish ;  and  that  we  should  take  it  as  a 
very  great  favor  if  he  would  be  kind  enough  to  allow  us  a 
little  salt. 

He  seemed  to  be  rather  surprised  at  the  boldness  of  this 
request,  and  inquired  my  name. 

"  Archy  Moore,"  I  answered. 

"  Archy  Moore  ! "  he  cried  with  a  sneer, — "  and  pray 
tell  me  how  long  it  has  been  the  fashion  among  you  fellows 
to  have  double  names  ?  You  are  the  first  fellow  I  ever 
owned,  who  was  guilty  of  such  a  piece  of  impertinence ; — 
and  a  damned  impertinent  fellow  you  are.  I  see  it  in  your 
eye.  Let  me  beg  leave  to  request  of  you,  Mr  Archy  Moore, 
to  be  satisfied  with  calling  yourself  Archy,  the  next  time  1 
inquire  your  name." 

I  had  taken  the  name  of  Moore,  since  leaving  Spring- 
Meadow  ;  an  assumption  not  uncommon  in  Virginia,  and 
which  is  there  thought  harmless  enough.  But  the  South 
Carolinians,  who  of  all  the  Americans,  seem  to  have  carried 
the  theory  and  practice  of  tyranny  to  the  highest  perfec 
tion,  are  jealous  of  every  thing  that  may  seem  in  any 
respect,  to  raise  their  slaves  above  the  level  of  their  dogs 
and  horses. 

The  words  and  manner  of  my  master  were  sufficiently 
irritating,  but  I  was  not  to  be  shuffled  off  in  that  way.  I 
passed  over  his  rebuke  in  silence,  but  ventured  again,  in  the 
most  respectful  terms  I  could  command,  to  renew  the  re 
quest,  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  allow  us  a  little  salt  to 
season  our  hominy. 

"  You  are  a  damned,  unreasonable,  dissatisfied  set  ol 
fellows  as  ever  I  met  with ! "  was  the  answer.  "  Why 
boy,  you  eat  me  out  of  house  and  home  already.  It  is  as 
much  as  I  can  do  to  buy  com  for  you.  If  you  want  salt, 
isn't  there  plenty  of  sea-water  within  five  miles  ?  If  you 
want  it,  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  make  it !  " 

So  he  said ;  and  as  they  wheeled  their  horses  and  rode 
away,  he  and  his  companions  joined  in  a  loud  laugh  at 
the  wit  and  point  of  his  answer, 


ARCHY   MOORE.  51 


CHAPTER   VII. 

AMONG  Mr  Carleton's  servants,  or  rather  the  servants 
that  had  been  Mr  Carleton's,  but  who  had  now  become  the 
property  of  general  Carter,  was  one  named  Thomas. 
While  we  had  lived  together  at  Carleton-Hall,  I  had  con 
tracted  an  intimacy  with  him,  which  we  still  kept  up. 
He  was  of  unmixed  African  blood,  with  good  features,  a 
stout  muscular  frame,  and  on  several  accounts,  a  very  re 
markable  man. 

His  bodily  strength,  and  his  capacity  for  enduring  priva 
tion  and  fatigue,  were  very  uncommon  ;  but  the  character 
of  his  mind  was  still  more  so.  His  passions  were  strong 
and  even  violent ;  but  what  is  very  rare  among  slaves,  he 
had  them  completely  under  his  control ;  and  in  all  his  words 
and  actions  he  was  as  gentle  as  a  lamb.  The  truth  was, 
that  when  quite  young,  he  had  been  taken  in  hand  by  cer 
tain  Methodists,  who  lived  and  labored  in  his  neighborhood ; 
and  so  strong  and  lasting  were  the  impressions  which  their 
teaching  made  upon  him,  and  so  completely  had  he  imbibed 
their  doctrines,  that  it  seemed  as  if  several  of  the  most 
powerful  principles  of  human  nature  had  been  eradicated 
from  his  bosom. 

His  religious  teachers  had  thoroughly  inculcated  into  a 
soul,  naturally  proud  and  high-spirited,  that  creed  of  passive 
obedience  and  patient  long-suffering,  which  under  the  sacred 
name  of  religion,  has  been  often  found  more  potent  than 
whips  or  fetters,  in  upholding  tyranny,  and  subduing  the 
resistance  of  the  superstitious  and  trembling  slave.  •  They 
had  taught  him,  and  he  believed,  that  God  had  made  him  a 
servant ;  and  that  it  was  his  duty  to  obey  his  master,  and  be 
contented  with  his  lot.  Whatever  cruelties  or  indignities 
the  unprovoked  insolence  of  unlimited  authority  might  in 
flict  upon  him,  it  was  his  duty  to  submit  in  humble  silence  ; 
and  if  his  master  smote  him  on  one  cheek,  he  was  to 
turn  to  him  the  other  also.  This,  with  Thomas,  was  not 
a  mere  form  of  words  run  through  with,  and  then  forgot 
ten.  In  all  my  experience,  I  have  never  known  a  man 


52  MEMOIRS     OF 

over  whom  his  creed  appeared  to  hold  so  powerful  u 
control. 

Nature  had  intended  him  for  one  of  those  lofty  spirits 
who  are  the  terror  of  tyrants,  and  the  bold  assertors  of  lib 
erty.  But  under  the  influence  of  his  religion,  he  had 
become  a  passive,  humble  and  obedient  slave.  He  made 
it  a  point  of  duty  to  be  faithful  to  his  master  in  all  things. 
He  never  tasted  whiskey  ;  he  would  sooner  starve  than 
steal ;  and  he  preferred  being  whipped  to  telling  a  lie. 
These  qualities,  so  very  uncommon  in  a  slave,  as  well  as 
his  cheerful  obedience,  and  laborious  industry,  had  gained 
him  the  good  will  even  of  Mr  Carleton's  overseer.  He  was 
treated  as  a  sort  of  confidential  servant ;  was  often  trusted 
to  keep  the  keys,  and  give  out  the  allowance  ; — and  so 
scrupulously  did  he  fulfil  all  that  was  required  of  him,  that 
even  the  fretful  caprice  of  an  overseer  had  no  fault  to  find. 
He  had  lived  at  Carleton-Hall  more  than  ten  years,  and  in 
all  that  time,  had  never  once  been  whipped.  What  was 
most  remarkable  and  uncommon  of  all,  at  the  same  time 
that  he  obtained  the  confidence  of  the  overseer,  Thomas 
had  succeeded  in  gaining  the  good  will  of  his  fellow  ser 
vants.  There  never  lived  a  kinder-hearted,  better  tempered 
man.  There  was  nothing  he  was  not  ready  to  do  for  a 
fellow  creature  in  distress ;  he  was  ever  willing  to  share  his 
provisions  with  the  hungry,  and  to  help  the  weak  and  tired 
to  finish  their  tasks.  Besides,  he  was  the  spiritual  guide  of 
the  plantation,  and  could  preach  and  pray  almost  as  well 
as  his  master.  I  had  no  sympathy  for  his  religious  enthu 
siasm,  but  I  loved  and  admired  the  man ;  and  we  had  long 
been  on  terms  of  close  intimacy. 

Thomas  had  a  wife,  Ann,  by  name,  a  pretty,  sprightly, 
good  natured  girl,  whom  he  loved  exceedingly.  It  was  a 
great  comfort  to  him, — indeed  he  regarded  it  as  a  special 
interposition  of  Providence  in  his  behalf, — that  when  carried 
away  from  Carleton-Hall  they  had  not  been  separated. 
Never  was  a  man  more  grateful,  or  more  delighted  than 
Thomas  was,  when  he  found  that  both  he  and  Ann  had 
been  purchased  by  general  Carter.  That  they  should  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  same  owner  was  all  he  desired  ;  and 
he  readily  transferred  to  the  service  of  his  purchaser,  all 


ARCHY    MOORE.  53 

that  zeal  and  devotion,  which,  as  he  had  been  taught  to 
believe,  a  slave  owes  to  his  master.  While  all  the  rest  of 
us,  upon  our  first  arrival  at  Loosahachee,  had  been  com 
plaining  and  lamenting  over  the  hardness  of  our  tasks,  and 
the  poor  and  insufficient  food  which  our  new  master  allowed 
us,  Thomas  said  not  a  word ;  but  had  worked  away  with 
such  zeal  and  vigor,  that  he  soon  gained  the  reputation  of 
being  one  of  the  best  hands  on  the  place. 

Thomas's  wife  had  an  infant  child  but  a  few  weeks  old, 
who,  according  to  the  Carolina  fashion,  was  brought  to  her 
in  the  field  to  be  nursed ; — for  the  Carolina  planters,  spend 
thrifts  in  every  thing  else,  in  all  that  regards  their  servants, 
are  wonderful  economists.  One  hot  afternoon,  Ann  sat 
down  beneath  a  tree,  and  took  the  infant  from  the  hands  of 
the  little  child  herself  scarcely  able  to  walk,  who  had  the 
care  of  it  during  the  day.  She  had  finished  the  maternal 
office,  and  was  returning  slowly,  and  perhaps  rather  unwill 
ingly  to  her  task,  when  the  overseer  rode  into  that  part  of 
the  field.  The  name  of  our  overseer  was  Mr  Martin.  He 
was  one  of  those  who  are  denominated  smart  fellows  and 
good  disciplinarians.  He  had  established  a  rule  that  there 
was  to  be  no  loitering  at  Loosahachee.  Walking  was  too 
lazy  a  pace  for  him ;  if  there  was  any  occasion  to  go  from 
one  part  of  the  field  to  another,  it  was  to  be  in  a  run.  Ann 
had  perhaps  forgotten,  at  all  events,  she  was  not  complying 
with  this  ridiculous  piece  of  plantation  discipline.  This 
was  no  sooner  observed  by  the  overseer,  than  he  rode  up  to 
her ;  cursed  her  for  a  lazy  vagabond ;  and  commenced 
beating  her  over  the  head  with  his  whip.  Thomas  happened 
to  be  working  close  by.  He  felt  every  stroke  ten  times  as 
keenly  as  though  it  had  lighted  upon  his  own  shoulders. 
Here  was  a  trial  too  strong  for  the  artificial  principles  of 
any  creed.  He  moved  forward  as  though  he  would  go  to 
his  wife's  assistance.  We  who  were  by,  begged  him  to 
stop  ;  and  told  him  he  would  only  get  himself  into  trouble. 
But  the  cries  and  shrieks  of  his  wife  made  him  deaf  to  our 
entreaties ;  he  rushed  forward  ;  and  before  the  overseer  was 
aware,  he  seized  his  whip,  snatched  it  from  his  hand ;  and 
demanded  what  he  meant  by  beating  a  woman  in  that  way, 
for  no  offence  whatever? 
5* 


54  MEMOIRS    OP 

To  judge  from  Mr  Martin's  looks,  this  was  a  display  of 
spirit,  or  as  he  would  call  it,  of  insolence  and  insubordina 
tion,  for  which  he  was  not  at  all  prepared.  He  reined  back 
his  horse  for  a  rod  or  two  ; — when,  seeming  to  recollect 
himself,  he  put  his  hand  into  his  coat-pocket  and  drew  out 
a  pistol.  He  cocked  it  and  pointed  it  at  Thomas,  who 
dropped  the  whip  and  turned  to  run.  Mr  Martin  fired  ; 
but  his  hand  shook  too  much  to  enable  him  to  take  a  very 
effectual  aim  ;  and  Thomas  continued  his  flight ;  leaped  the 
fence  ;  and  disappeared  in  the  thicket  by  which  it  was 
bordered. 

Having  put  the  husband  to  flight,  the  overseer  turned  to 
the  wife  who  stood  by  trembling  and  crying.  He  was  boil 
ing  over  with  rage  and  passion,  and  seemed  determined  to 
spend  his  fury  on  this  helpless  and  unhappy  woman.  He 
called  the  driver  of  the  gang,  and  two  or  three  other  men  to 
his  assistance,  and  bade  them  strip  off  her  clothes. 

The  preparations  being  complete,  Mr  Martin  commenced 
the  torture.  The  lash  buried  itself  in  her  flesh  at  every 
blow  ;  and  as  the  poor  wretch  threw  up  her  gashed  and  gory 
arms,  the  blood  ran  down  in  streams.  Her  cries  were 
dreadful.  Used  as  I  had  been  to  similar  scenes,  my  heart 
sickened,  and  my  head  grew  dizzy.  I  longed  to  seize  the 
monster  by  the  throat  and  dash  him  to  the  ground.  How  I 
restrained  myself  I  do  not  know.  Most  sure  I  am,  that 
nothing  but  the  base  and  dastard  spirit  of  a  slave  could 
have  endured  that  scene  of  female  torture  and  distress,  and 
not  have  interfered. 

Before  Mr  Martin  had  finished,  poor  Ann  sunk  to  the 
ground  in  a  state  of  total  insensibility.  He  ordered  us  to 
make  a  litter,  of  sticks  and  hoe-handles,  and  to  cany  her  to 
his  house.  We  laid  her  down  in  the  passage.  The  over 
seer  brought  a  heavy  chain,  one  end  of  which  he  put 
around  her  neck,  and  the  other  he  fastened  to  one  of  the 
beams.  He  said  her  fainting  was  all  pretence ;  and  that  if 
he  did  not  chain  her,  she  would  be  running  away  and  join 
ing  her  husband. 

We  were  now  all  ordered  into  the  woods  to  hunt  for 
Thomas.  We  separated  and  pretended  to  examine  every 
place  that  seemed  likely  to  conceal  him  ;  but  with  the  ex- 


ARCHY   MOORE.  55 

ception  of  the  drivers,  and  one  or  two  base  fellows  who 
sought  to  curry  favor  with  the  overseer,  I  do  not  believe 
that  any  of  us  felt  any  great  anxiety,  or  took  much  pains  to 
find  him.  Not  far  from  the  fence  was  a  low  swampy  place, 
thickly  grown  up  with  cane  and  gum-trees.  As  I  was 
making  my  way  through  it,  I  came  suddenly  upon  Thomas, 
who  was  leaning  against  the  trunk  of  a  large  tree.  He  laid 
his  hand  upon  my  shoulder,  and  asked  what  the  overseer 
had  done  to  his  wife.  I  concealed  from  him,  as  well  as  I 
could,  the  miserable  torture  which  had  been  inflicted  upon 
her ;  but  I  told  him  that  Mr  Martin  was  all  fire  and  fury, 
and  that  it  would  be  best  for  him  to  keep  out  of  the  way 
till  his  passion  could  subside  a  little.  I  promised  to  return 
in  the  evening  and  to  bring  him  food.  In  the  mean  time, 
if  he  would  lie  close,  there  would  be  little  danger  that  any 
one  would  find  him. 

We  were  presently  called  back  from  our  ineffectual 
search,  and  ordered  to  resume  our  tasks.  I  finished  mine 
as  quickly  as  I  could  ;  hastened  home,  got  some  food 
ready,  and  went  to  see  poor  Ann.  I  found  her  lying  in  the 
passage  chained  as  we  had  left  her.  Her  low  moans  showed 
that  she  had  so  far  recovered  herself  as  to  be  once  more 
sensitive  to  pain.  She  complained  that  the  chain  about  her 
neck  hurt  her  and  made  it  difficult  to  breathe.  I  stooped 
down  and  was  attempting  to  loosen  it,  when  Mrs  Martin 
made  her  appearance  at  the  door ;  she  asked  what  right  I 
had  to  meddle  with  the  girl ;  and  bade  me  go  about  my 
business.  I  would  have  left  the  food  I  had  brought ;  but 
Mrs  Martin  told  me  to  take  it  away  again  ;  it  would  learn 
the  wench  better  manners,  she  said,  to  starve  her  for  a  day 
or  two. 

I  took  up  my  little  basket,  and  went  away  with  a  heavy 
heart.  As  soon  as  it  grew  dark,  I  set  off  to  meet  Thomas  : 
but  lest  my  steps  might  be  dogged  by  the  overseer  or  some  of 
his  spies,  I  took  a  very  round-about  course.  I  found  him 
near  the  place  where  I  had  met  him  before.  His  earnest 
entreaties  to  know  the  whole,  drew  from  me  the  story  of  his 
poor  wife's  sufferings  and  her  present  situation.  It  moved 
him  deeply.  At  intervals  he  wept  like  a  child ; — then  he 
strove  to  restrain  himself,  repeating  half  aloud,  some  texts 


56  MEMOIRS    OF 

of  scripture,  and  what  seemed  a  sort  of  prayer.  But  all 
would  not  do  ;  and  carried  away  at  last,  by  a  sudden  gust 
of  passion,  forgetful  of  his  religious  scruples,  he  cursed 
the  brutal  overseer  with  all  the  energy  of  a  husband's 
vengeance.  Presently  he  recovered  his  self-command,  and 
began  to  take  fault  to  himself,  ascribing  all  the  blame  to  his 
o\vn  foolish  interference.  The  thought  that  what  his  affec 
tion  for  his  wife  had  prompted  him  to  do,  had  only  served 
to  aggravate  her  sufferings,  seemed  to  agitate  him  almost  to 
distraction.  Again,  the  tide  of  passion  swept  all  before  it. 
His  countenance  grew  convulsed ;  his  bosom  heaved  ;  and 
he  only  found  relief  in  half-uttered  threats  and  muttered 
execrations. 

He  consulted  with  me  as  to  what  he  had  better  do.  1 
knew  that  the  overseer  was  terribly  incensed  against  him. 
I  had  heard  him  say,  that  if  such  a  daring  act  of  insolence 
was  not  most  signally  punished,  it  would  be  enough  to 
corrupt  and  disorder  the  whole  neighborhood.  I  was  aware 
that  Mr  Martin  would  not  dare  absolutely  to  put  him  to 
death.  But  this  prohibition  to  commit  murder  is  the  sole  and 
single  limit  to  an  overseer's  authority ;  and  I  knew  that  he 
had  both  the  right  and  the  will  to  inflict  a  torture  compared 
to  which  the  agonies  of  an  ordinary  death-struggle  wrould 
be  but  trifling.  I  therefore  advised  Thomas  to  fly  ;  since 
even  if  he  were  caught  at  last,  no  severer  punishment  could 
be  inflicted  upon  him  than  he  would  be  certain  of,  upon  a 
voluntary  surrender. 

For  a  moment,  this  advice  seemed  to  please  him  ;  and 
an  expression  of  daring  determination  appeared  in  his  face^ 
such  as  I  had  never  seen  there  before.  But  it  disappeared 
in  an  instant.  "  There  is  Ann,"  he  said,  "  I  cannot  leave 
her,  and  she,  poor  timid  thing,  even  if  she  were  well,  I 
could  never  persuade  her  to  fly  with  me.  It  will  not  do, 
Archy ;  I  cannot  leave  my  wife  !  " 

What  could  I  answer? 

I  understood  him  well,  and  knew  how  to  sympathize 
with  him.  I  could  not  but  admit  the  force  of  his  objection. 
Such  feelings  I  knew  it  would  be  in  vain  to  combat  with 
arguments ;  indeed  I  could  not  make  up  my  mind  to 
attempt  it ;  and  as  I  had  no  other  advice  to  give,  I  remained 
silent. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  57 

Thomas  seemed  lost  in  thought,  and  continued  for  some 
minutes  with  his  eyes  fixed  upon  the  ground.  Presently 
he  told  me  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind.  He  was  de 
termined,  he  said,  to  go  to  Charleston  and  appeal  to  his 
master. 

The  little  I  had  known  of  general  Carter,  did  not  incline 
me  to  put  much  dependence  on  his  justice  or  generosity  ; 
but  as  Thomas  seemed  pleased  with  this  plan,  and  as  it  was 
his  only  chance,  I  applauded  it.  He  ate  the  food  I  had 
brought,  and  determined  to  set  off  immediately.  He  had 
only  been  once  to  Charleston,  during  all  the  time  we  had 
been  at  Loosahachee ;  but  as  he  was  one  of  those  people, 
who,  if  they  have  been  once  to  a  place,  find  little  difficulty 
in  going  a  second  time,  I  had  no  doubt  of  his  finding  his 
way  to  town. 

I  returned  to  my  cabin  ;  but  I  was  so  anxious  and  un 
certain  about  the  success  of  Thomas,  in  the  scheme  he  had 
adopted,  that  I  could  not  sleep.  At  daylight  I  went  to  my 
task.  My  anxiety  acted  as  a  stimulus  upon  me,  and  I  had 
finished  long  before  any  of  my  companions.  As  I  was 
passing  from  the  field  to  my  cabin,  I  saw  general  Carter's 
carriage  driving  up  the  road ;  and  as  it  passed  me  I  ob 
served  poor  Thomas  behind,  chained  to  the  footman's 
stand. 

The  carriage  drove  up  to  the  house.  General  Carter  got 
out  of  it,  and  sent  off  in  great  haste  for  Mr  Martin,  who 
had  taken  his  gun  and  dog  early  that  morning,  and  had 
been  beating  about  the  woods  all  day,  in  search  of  Thomas. 
In  the  mean  time,  general  Carter  ordered  all  the  hands  on 
the  plantation  to  be  collected. 

At  last  Mr  Martin  arrived.  The  moment  general 
Carter  saw  him,  he  cried  out — "  Well,  sir,  here  is  a  runaway, 
I  have  brought  back  for  you.  Would  you  believe  it  ? — the 
fellow  had  the  impertinence  to  come  to  Charleston  with  the 
story  of  his  grievances  !  Even  from  his  own  account  of  the 
matter,  he  was  guilty  of  the  greatest  insolence  I  ever  heard 
of.  Snatching  the  whip  from  the  hand  of  an  overseer ! 
Things  are  coming  to  a  pretty  pass  indeed,  when  these 
fellows  undertake  to  justify  such  insubordination.  The  next 
tiling  we  shall  hear  of,  they  will  be  cutting  our  throats. 


58  MEMOIRS    OF 

However,  I  stopped  the  scoundrel's  mouth  before  he  had 
said  five  words.  I  told  him,  I  would  pardon  any  thing 
sooner  than  insolence  to  my  overseer.  I  would  much  sooner 
excuse  impertinence  towards  myself.  And  to  let  him  know 
what  I  thought  of  his  conduct,  here  you  see  I  have  brought 
him  back  to  you  ;  and  I  have  done  it,  even  at  the  risk  of 
being  obliged  to  sleep  here  to-night,  and  catching  the  coun 
try  fever.  Whip  the  rascal  well,  Mr  Martin  !  wrhip  him 
well!  I  have  had  all  the  hands  collected,  that  they  may 
see  the  punishment,  and  take  warning  by  it." 

Mr  Martin  thus  invited,  sprung  upon  his  prey  with  a 
tiger's  ferocity.  But  I  have  no  inclination  to  disgust  my 
self  with  another  description  of  the  horrid  torment  of  which 
in  America,  the  whip  is  the  active  and  continual  instrument. 
He  who  is  curious  in  these  matters,  will  do  well  to  spend 
six  months  upon  an  American  plantation.  He  will  soon 
discover  that  the  rack  was  a  superfluous  invention  ;  and  that 
the  whip,  by  those  well  skilled  in  the  use  of  it,  can  be  made 
to  answer  any  purposes  of  torture. 

Though  Thomas  was  quite  cut  up  with  the  lash,  and 
whipped  by  two  drivers  till  he  fainted  from  pain  and  loss 
of  blood,  such  was  the  nerve  and  vigor  of  his  constitution, 
and  the  noble  firmness  of  his  mind,  that  he  stood  it  like  a 
hero,  and  disdained  to  utter  any  of  those  piercing  screams 
and  piteous  cries  for  mercy,  which  are  commonly  heard  up 
on  the  like  occasions.  He  soon  got  over  the  effects  of 
this  discipline ;  and  in  a  few  days  was  at  work  again  as 
usual. 

Not  so  with  his  wife.  She  was  naturally  of  a  slender 
constitution,  and  perhaps  had  not  entirely  recovered  from 
the  weakness  incident  upon  child-birth.  Either  the  whip 
ping  she  had  suffered,  or  her  chains  and  starvation  after 
wards,  or  both  together,  had  brought  on  a  violent  disorder, 
of  which  at  first,  she  seemed  to  get  better,  but  which  left 
her  suffering  under  a  dull  nervous  fever,  without  strength  or 
appetite,  or  even  the  desire  of  recovery.  Her  poor  baby 
seemed  to  sympathize  with  its  mother,  and  pined  from  day 
to  day.  At  length  it  died.  The  mother  did  not  long  sur 
vive  it.  She  lingered  for  a  week  or  two.  Sick  as  she  was, 
she  had  no  attendant  except  a  superannuated  old  woman 


ARCHY     MOORE.  59 

who  could  neither  see  nor  hear.  Thomas  of  course  was 
obliged  to  go  to  his  tasks  as  usual.  He  returned  one  night, 
and  found  her  dead. 

One  of  the  drivers,  a  mean  spirited  fellow,  and  Mr  Mar 
tin's  principal  spy  and  informer,  was  the  only  person  al 
lowed  to  preach  at  Loosahachee,  and  to  act  as  the  leader 
in  those  mummeries  to  which  the  ignorant  and  superstitious 
slaves  give  the  name  of  religion.  He  paid  a  visit  to  the 
afflicted  husband,  and  offered  his  services  for  the  funeral. 
Thomas  had  so  much  natural  good  sense,  that  he  was  not, 
like  many  persons  of  his  way  of  thinking,  imposed  upon  and 
taken  in,  by  every  one  who  chose  to  make  use  of  the  cant 
of  sanctity.  He  had  long  ago  seen  through  this  hypocritical 
fellow,  and  learned  to  despise  him.  He  therefore  declined 
his  assistance  ;  and  pointing  to  me,  "  Himself  and  his  friend," 
he  said,  "  would  be  sufficient  to  bury  the  poor  girl."  He 
seemed  about  to  add  something  more  ;  but  the  mention  of 
his  wife  had  overpowered  him ;  his  voice  choked,  his  eyes 
filled  with  tears,  and  he  was  constrained  to  be  silent. 

It  was  a  Sunday.  The  preacher  soon  left  us ;  and  poor 
Thomas  sat  the  whole  day  watching  his  wife's  body.  I  re 
mained  with  him ;  but  I  knew  how  useless  any  attempt  at 
consolation  would  be,  and  I  said  but  little. 

Towards  sun-set,  several  of  our  fellow  servants  came  in  ; 
and  they  were  presently  followed  by  most  of  the  plantation 
people.  We  took  up  the  body  and  carried  it  to  the  place 
of  burial.  This  was  a  fine  smooth  slope  covered  with  tall 
trees.  It  seemed  to  have  been  long  used  for  its  present 
purpose.  Numerous  little  ridges,  some  of  them  new,  and 
others  just  discernible,  indicated  the  places  of  the  graves. 

The  husband  leaned  over  the  body,  while  we  busied 
ourselves  in  the  sad  office  of  digging  its  last  resting  place. 
The  shallow  grave  was  soon  finished.  We  all  remained 
silent,  in  expectation  of  a  prayer,  a  hymn,  or  some  similar 
ceremony.  Thomas  attempted  once  or  twice  to  begin  ;  but 
his  voice  rattled  in  his  throat,  and  died  away  in  an  inarticu 
late  murmur.  He  shook  his  head,  and  bade  us  place  the 
body  in  the  grave.  We  did  so ;  and  the  earth  was  soon 
heaped  upon  it. 

It  was  already  growing  dark ;  and  the  burial  being  fin- 


60  MEMOIRS     OF 

ished,  those  who  had  attended  at  it,  hastened  homeward. 
The  husband  still  remained  standing  by  the  side  of  the 
grave.  I  took  his  arm,  and  with  a  gentle  force,  would  have 
drawn  him  away.  He  shook  me  off,  and  raising  his  hand 
and  head,  he  muttered  in  a  low  whisper,  "  Murdered,  mur 
dered  ! '  As  he  spoke  these  words,  he  turned  his  eyes  on 
me.  There  gleamed  in  them,  a  spirit  of  passionate  and  in 
dignant  grief.  It  was  plain  that  natural  feeling  was  fast 
gaining  the  mastery  over  that  system  of  artificial  constraint 
in  which  he  had  been  educated.  I  sympathized  with  him  ; 
and  I  pressed  his  hand  to  let  him  know  I  did  so.  He  re 
turned  the  pressure ;  and  after  a  short  pause,  he  added, 
"  Blood  for  blood  ;  is  it  not  so,  Archy  ?  "  There  was  some 
thing  terrible  in  the  slow,  but  firm  and  steady  tone  in  which 
he  spoke.  I  knew  not  what  to  answer;  nor  did  he  appear 
to  expect  a  reply.  Though  he  addressed  me,  the  question 
seemed  intended  only  for  himself.  I  took  his  arm,  and  we 
walked  off  in  silence. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

IT  is  customary  in  South  Carolina,  to  allow  the  slaves 
the  week  from  Christmas  to  the  new  year,  as  a  sort  of  holi 
day.  This  indulgence  is  extended  so  far,  that  during  that 
week,  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  allowed  to  leave  the  plan 
tations,  the  scenes  of  their  daily  labors  and  sufferings,  and 
to  wander  about  in  the  neighborhood,  pretty  much  at  their 
own  will  and  pleasure.  The  high-ways  present  at  that 
season,  a  singular  appearance.  The  slaves  of  every  age 
and  sex,  collected  from  the  populous  plantations  of  the  tide 
waters,  and  dressed  in  the  best  attire  they  have  been  able 
to  muster,  assemble  in  great  numbers,  swarming  along  the 
road,  and  clustering  about  the  little  whiskey-shops,  produ 
cing  a  scene  of  bustle  and  confusion,  witnessed  only  at  the 
Christmas  holidays. 

Those  shops  are  principally  supported  by  a  traffic  with 
the  slaves  for  stolen  rice  and  cotton, — a  traffic  which  all  the 


ARCHY    MOORE.  61 

vindictive  fury  of  the  planters,  backed  by  an  abundant  legis 
lation,  has  not  been  able  to  eradicate.  They  are  the  chief 
support,  in  fact,  the  only  means  of  livelihood,  open  to  a  con 
siderable  portion  of  the  lower  order  of  the  white  aristocracy 
of  the  country.  It  is  the  same  in  Carolina  as  in  Lower  Vir 
ginia.  The  poor  whites  are  extremely  rude  and  ignorant, 
and  acquainted  with  but  few  of  the  comforts  of  civilized 
life.  They  are  idle,  dissipated,  and  vicious ;  with  all  that 
vulgar  brutality  of  vice,  which  poverty  and  ignorance  ren 
der  so  conspicuous  and  disgusting.  Without  land,  or  at 
best,  possessing  some  little  tract  of  barren  and  exhausted 
soil,  which  they  have  neither  skill  nor  industry  to  render 
productive  ;  without  any  trade  or  handicraft  art ;  and  look 
ing  upon  all  manual  labor  as  degrading  to  freemen,  and  fit 
only  for  a  state  of  servitude, — these  poor  white  men  have 
become  the  jest  of  the  slaves,  and  are  at  once,  feared  and 
hated  by  the  select  aristocracy  of  rich  planters.  It  is  only 
the  right  of  suffrage  which  they  possess,  that  preserves  them 
the  show  of  consideration  and  respect  with  which  they  are 
yet  treated.  This  right  of  suffrage,  of  which  the  select 
aristocracy  are  extremely  anxious  to  deprive  them,  is  the 
only  safeguard  of  the  poor  whites.  But  for  this,  they  would 
be  trampled  under  foot  without  mercy  ;  and  by  force  of  law 
and  legislation,  would  soon  be  reduced  to  a  condition  little 
superior  to  that  of  the  very  slaves  themselves. 

On  the  Christmas  holidays  which  succeeded  my  becoming 
an  inhabitant  of  Loosahachee,  a  great  number  of  slaves,  of 
whom,  I  was  one,  were  assembled  about  a  little  store  on 
the  neighboring  high  road,  laughing,  talking,  drinking  whis 
key,  and  making  merry  after  our  several  fashions.  While 
we  were  thus  employed,  I  observed  riding  along  the  road, 
a  mean  looking  fellow,  shabbily  dressed,  with  a  face  of  that 
disagreeable  cadaverous  hue  that  makes  the  inferior  order 
of  whites  in  Lower  Carolina  look  so  much  like  walking 
corpses.  He  was  mounted  on  a  lean  scraggy  horse,  w host- 
hips  seemed  just  bursting  through  the  skin,  and  he  carried 
in  his  hand  an  enormous  whip,  which  he  handled  with  a 
familiar  grace,  seldom  acquired  except  by  an  American 
slave-driver.  As  he  passed  us,  I  noticed  that  all  the  slaves 
who  had  hats,  pulled  them  off  to  him ;  but  as  I  did  not  see 

VOL.  II.  6 


MEMOIRS    OF 


any  thing  in  the  fellow's  appearance  that  demanded  any 
particular  respect,  and  as  I  was  ignorant  of  the  Carolina 
etiquette,  which  requires  from  every  slave  an  obsequious 
bearing  towards  every  freeman,  seldom  expected  in  Vir 
ginia,  I  let  my  hat  remain  upon  my  head.  The  fellow 
noticed  it ;  reined  up  his  jaded  beast,  and  eyed  me  sharply. 
My  complexion  made  him  doubt  whether  I  might  not  be 
a  freeman ;  my  dress  and  the  company  I  was  in,  gave  him 
equal  grounds  for  supposing  me  a  slave.  He  inquired  who 
I  was ;  and  being  told  that  1  was  one  of  general  Carter's 
people,  he  rode  towards  me  with  his  upraised  whip,  de 
manding  why  I  did  not  take  off  my  hat  to  him  ;  and  without 
waiting  for  an  answer,  he  began  to  lay  the  lash  over  my 
shoulders.  The  fellow  was  evidently  drunk,  and  my  first 
impulse  was  to  take  the  whip  away  from  him.  Luckily  I 
did  not  yield  to  this  impulse ;  for  any  attempt  to  resist  even 
a  drunken  white  man,  though  that  resistance  was  only  in 
repelling  the  most  unprovoked  attack,  according  to  the  just 
and  equal  laws  of  Carolina,  might  have  cost  me  my  life. 

I  learned  upon  inquiry  that  this  fellow  had  been  an  over 
seer  ;  but  some  time  previous  had  been  discharged  by  his 
employer  for  suspected  dishonesty.  Not  long  after,  he  had 
set  up  a  whiskey  shop  about  half  a  mile  distant.  From 
what  he  said  to  the  owner  of  the  store  where  we  were  as 
sembled,  it  would  seem  that  his  shop  had  not  been  so  much 
frequented  during  the  holidays  as  he  had  expected  ;  and  in 
beating  me,  he  had  vented  his  drunken  spite  and  ill  humor 
on  the  first  object  that  gave  him  any  thing  like  a  pretence 
to  exercise  it.  I  learned  too,  that  this  fellow  whose  name 
was  Christie,  was  a  cousin  of  Mr  Martin,  our  overseer. 
They  had  been  close  friends ;  but  had  lately  had  a  violent 
quarrel.  Christie  had  stabbed  Martin ;  and  Martin  had 
shot  at  Christie  with  his  double-barrelled  gun.  He  had 
taken  a  still  more  effectual  revenge  by  doing  his  best  to 
stop  the  trade  from  Loosahachee  to  Christie's  shop,  which 
he  had  formerly  winked  at,  and  which  had  been  carried  on. 
much  to  Christie's  benefit,  by  the  exchange  of  well  watered 
whiskey  for  general  Carter's  rice  and  cotton. 

I  no  sooner  heard  this  account  of  Mr  Christie,  lhan  it  oc 
curred  to  me  that  I  had  him  in  my  power ;  and  at  once,  1 


ARCHY    MOORE. 


resolved  to  make  him  smart  in  his  turn,  for  the  lashes  he 
had  inflicted  upon  me.  It  is  true,  I  was  obliged  to  play  the 
part  of  a  spy  and  an  informer ;  but  such  low  means  are  the 
only  resource  which  the  condition  of  servitude  allows.  As 
soon  as  I  got  home,  I  hastened  to  the  overseer,  and  with  an 
abundance  of  hypocritical  pretences  and  professions  of  zeal 
for  my  master's  service,  I  communicated  to  him  as  a  great 
secret,  the  fact  that  Mr  Christie  was  in  the  habit  of  trading 
with  the  hands,  and  buying  whatever  they  brought  him, 
without  asking  any  questions. 

Mr  Martin  said  that  he  was  well  aware  of  it ;  and  he 
would  give  me  five  dollars,  if  I  would  help  him  to  detect 
Christie  in  the  fact. 

We  quickly  struck  up  a  bargain.  The  overseer  furnished 
me  with  a  quantity  of  cotton  ;  and  I  set  off,  one  moon-light 
night,  to  pay  a  visit  to  Mr  Christie's  shop. 

He  recognized  me  at  once,  and  jested  a  good  deal,  about 
the  whipping  he  had  given  me.  He  thought  it  an  excel 
lent  joke  ;  and  it  best  answered  my  purpose  to  appear  very 
much  of  the  same  opinion.  I  found  him  not  at  all  disin 
clined  to  trade,  provided  I  would  exchange  my  cotton  for 
his  whiskey,  at  the  nominal  price  of  a  dollar  a  quart.  It 
was  not  long  before  I  paid  him  a  second  visit.  That  time, 
Mr  Martin  and  one  of  his  friends  were  posted  outside  the 
shop,  at  a  place  where  they  could  peep  between  the  logs 
and  see  and  overhear  the  whole  transaction. 

To  buy  rice,  cotton,  or  in  fact  any  thing  else  of  a  slave, 
unless  he  produces  a  written  permit  from  his  master  to  sell 
it,  according  to  the  Carolina  statute-book,  is  one  of  the  most 
enormous  crimes  a  man  can  commit.  Mr  Christie  was  in 
dicted  at  the  next  court.  He  was  found  guilty  on  the 
express  testimony  of  Mr  Martin  and  his  companion  ;  and 
was  fined  a  thousand  dollars,  and  sentenced  to  a  year's  im 
prisonment.  The  fine  swept  away  what  little  property  he 
had ;  and  how  his  imprisonment  ended  I  never  heard. 
More  than  one  of  the  jurymen  who  convicted  him,  were 
grievously  suspected  of  the  very  same  practices ;  but  the 
dread  of  incurring  fresh  suspicion,  or  perhaps  the  jealous 
rivalry  of  trade,  made  those  very  fellows  the  most  clamorous 
for  his  condemnation. 


64  MEMOIRS    OF 

Mr  Martin  was  so  well  pleased  with  my  services  in  this 
affair, — in  which  he  fancied  I  had  put  myself  forward  mere 
ly  to  be  used  as  his  cat's  paw, — that  he  took  me  quite  into 
favor,  and  began  to  employ  me  as  one  of  his  regular  spies 
and  informers.  Tyranny,  whether  on  the  great  scale  or  the 
little,  can  only  be  sustained  through  a  system  of  espionage 
and  betrayal,  in  which  the  most  mean-spirited  of  the  op 
pressed  are  turned  into  the  tools  and  instruments  of  oppres 
sion.  There  are  many  alleviations  of  the  wretchedness  of 
servitude  to  be  expected  from  the  favor  and  indulgence  of, 
an  overseer.  Let  it  be  remembered  also,  that  so  strong  arc 
the  allurements  which  power  holds  out,  that  even  among 
freemen,  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  always  to  be  found, 
who  are  ready  to  assist  in  sacrificing  the  dearest  rights  of 
their  neighbors,  by  volunteering  to  be  the  instruments  of 
superior  tyrants.  What  then  can  be  reasonably  expected 
from  those  who  have  been  studiously  and  systematically 
degraded?  What  wonder,  if  among  the  oppressed,  are 
found  the  readiest  and  most  relentless  instruments  of  op 
pression  ? 

•  As  I  knew  I  could  turn  Mr  Martin's  favor  to  good  ac 
count,  I  took  care  not  to  let  him  suspect,  with  what  scorn 
and  loathing  I  regarded  the  office  in  which  he  sought  to 
employ  me.  But  while  he  imagined  that  I  was  engaged 
heart  and  hand  in  his  service,  I  counter-worked  him  more 
than  once,  by  communicating  his  plans  and  stratagems  to 
those  whom  he  sought  to  entrap.  This  same  Mr  Martin, 
though  he  was  absolute  viceroy  over  more  than  three  hun 
dred  people,  was  a  very  ignorant  and  a  very  stupid  fellow. 
Several  circumstances  occurred,  which  with  a  shrewd  per 
son  would  have  betrayed  me  ;  but  I  succeeded  so  complete 
ly  in  blinding  Mr  Martin's  eyes,  that  he  still  continued  to 
place  an  unlimited  confidence  in  my  fidelity.  Of  this,  he 
soon  gave  me  a  new  proof;  for  riding  one  day,  into  the 
field,  where  I  wras  at  work,  and  not  finding  matters  going 
on  just  to  suit  him,  he  called  out  the  driver  of  the  gang,  and 
took  from  him  the  whip,  which  he  carried  as  the  badge  and 
principal  instrument  of  his  office.  He  then  called  for  me  ; 
and  having  given  me  t\venty  or  thirty  lashes,  according  to 
the  custom  in  such  cases,  he  put  the  whip  into  my  hand ; 


ARC  II Y    MOORE.  65 

appointed  me  driver  of  the  gang,  and  bade  me  do  the  first 
duty  of  my  new  office  upon  the  fellow  to  whose  place  I  had 
succeeded. 

It  is  under  the  inspection  of  drivers,  who  are  appoint 
ed  from  among  the  slaves,  at  the  will  of  the  overseer,  that 
the  culture  of  a  Carolina  plantation  is  carried  on.  The 
overseers  have  learned  too  much  of  the  airs  and  the  luxu 
rious  indolence  of  their  employers,  to  be  willing  to  be 
riding  about  all  day,  in  the  hot  sun,  looking  after  the  la 
borers.  The  slaves  are  divided  into  gangs,  and  each  gang 
is  put  under  the  charge  of  a  driver,  who  is  generally  select 
ed  for  his  cowardly  and  mean-spirited  subserviency,  and  his 
readiness  to  tyrannize  over  and  to  betray  his  companions. 
The  driver  is  entrusted  with  all  the  unlimited  and  absolute 
authority  of  the  master  himself.  He  receives  a  double  al 
lowance  ;  he  has  no  task ; — his  sole  business  is  to  look  after 
his  gang  and  see  that  they  perform  the  work  assigned  them  ; 
and  for  this  purpose  he  takes  his  station  in  the  midst  of 
them,  whip  in  hand.  When  the  overseer  makes  his  ap 
pearance  in  the  field,  all  the  drivers  collect  about  him  to 
receive  his  orders.  For  the  performance  of  the  work  as 
signed  to  his  gang,  each  driver  is  himself  responsible  ;  and 
that  he  may  perfectly  understand  by  what  means  he  is  to 
enforce  its  performance,  the  overseer  usually  inducts  him 
into  office  by  giving  him  a  severe  castigation  with  the  very 
whip  which  he  afterwards  puts  into  his  hand  to  be  used 
upon  his  companions. 

The  absolute  power  of  an  overseer,  is  often,  I  ought 
rather  to  say,  always  shockingly  abused ;  but  the  absolute 
power  of  drivers  is  yet  one  step  higher  towards  the  perfec 
tion  of  tyranny.  The  driver  faithfully  copies  all  the  arro 
gance  and  insolence  of  the  overseer  from  whom  he  receives 
his  commission ;  and  as  he  is  always  among  his  gang,  the 
aggravating  weight  of  his  authority  is  so  much  the  heavier. 
He  is  but  one  of  themselves ;  and  the  slaves  are  naturally 
more  impatient  of  his  rule,  than  they  would  be  of  the  same 
dominion,  exercised  by  one  belonging  to  what  they  have 
been  taught  to  regard  as  a  superior  race ;  and  whom, 
being  a  freeman,  they  are  ready  to  acknowledge  as  actually 
their  superior.  Besides,  the  drivers  are  far  from  limiting 
6* 


66  MEMOIRS    OF 

their  demands,  as  the  overseer  himself  generally  would  do, 
to  the  performance  of  the  field  labor.  They  have  a  thou 
sand  little  spites  to  gratify ;  a  thousand  purposes  of  their 
own  to  accomplish.  They  are  in  fact,  the  absolute  masters 
of  every  thing  which  any  of  their  gang  may  happen  to 
possess;  and  the  persons  of  the  women  are  as  much  at  their 
disposal  as  at  that  of  the  overseer,  or  the  master.  Even,  if 
by  chance,  a  driver  should  happen  not  to  be  disposed  to 
abuse  his  authority,  the  dread  of  losing  his  situation,  and 
the  knowledge  that  all  the  deficiencies  of  any  of  his  subor 
dinates  will  be  visited  upon  his  head,  makes  him  of  neces 
sity,  hasty,  harsh,  and  cruel. 

Heaven  is  my  witness  that  while  I  held  the  office  of 
driver,  my  great  object  was,  to  use  the  authority  which  it 
gave  me,  to  alleviate  as  far  as  I  could,  the  misery  of  my 
companions.  My  gang  consisted  of  the  Carleton  hands, 
with  whom  I  had  long  been  connected,  and  whom  I  looked 
upon  as  friends  and  fellow  sufferers.  Many  is  the  time, 
when  I  have  seen  one  and  another  fainting  under  his  task, 
and  unable  to  finish  it,  that  I  have  dropped  the  whip, 
seized  the  hoe,  and  instead  of  the  stimulus  of  the  lash,  have 
used  the  encouragement  of  aid  and  assistance.  This  I  did 
repeatedly ;  though  Mr  Martin,  more  than  once,  when  he 
found  me  so  employed,  expressed  his  disapprobation,  and 
told  me  it  was  no  way,  and  would  only  bring  the  station  of 
driver  into  contempt. 

But  it  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  write  an  eulogium  on 
myself ;  and  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  confess  the  whole  truth. 
There  were  times  that  I  abused  my  office  ; — and  I  verily 
believe  that  no  man  ever  exercised  an  unlimited  authority 
who  did  not  abuse  it.  The  consciousness  of  my  power, 
made  me  insolent  and  impatient ; — and  with  all  my  hatred, 
my  hearty,  experimental  hatred  of  tyranny,  the  whip  had 
not  long  been  placed  in  my  hands,  before  I  caught  myself 
m  the  act  of  playing  the  tyrant. 

Power  is  ever  dangerous  and  intoxicating.  Human 
nature  cannot  bear  it.  It  must  be  constantly  checked, 
controlled  and  limited,  or  it  declines  inevitably  into  tyran 
ny.  Even  all  the  endearments  of  the  family  connection ; 
the  tenderness  of  connubial  love,  and  the  heart-binding  ties 


ARCHY    MOORE.  67 

of  paternity,  seconded  as  they  always  are  by  the  strong 
influence  of  habit  and  opinion,  have  not  made  it  safe  to 
entrust  the  head  of  a  family  with  absolute  power  even  over 
his  own  household.  What  terms  then  are  strong  enough  in 
which  to  denounce  the  vain,  ridiculous,  and  wanton  folly 
of  expecting  any  thing  but  abuse  where  power  is  totally 
unchecked,  by  either  moral,  or  legal  control  ? 


CHAPTER   IX. 

SINCE  the  death  of  his  wife,  a  remarkable  change  had 
taken  place  in  my  friend  Thomas.  He  had  lost  his  former 
air  of  contentment  and  good  nature,  and  had  grown  morose 
and  sullen.  Instead  of  being  the  most  willing  and  industri 
ous  laborer  in  the  field,  as  he  used  to  be,  he  seemed  to  have 
imbibed  a  strong  distaste  for  work,  and  he  slighted  and 
neglected  his  task  as  much  as  possible.  Had  he  been 
under  any  other  driver  than  myself,  his  idleness  and  neglect 
would  have  frequently  brought  him  into  trouble.  But  I 
loved  and  pitied  him  ;  and  I  screened  him  all  I  could. 

The  wrongs  and  injuries  that  had  been  inflicted  upon 
him  since  his  arrival  at  Loosahachee,  seemed  to  have  sub 
verted  all  the  principles  upon  which  he  had  so  long  acted. 
It  was  a  subject  on  which  he  did  not  seem  inclined  to  con 
verse,  and  upon  which  I  was  unwilling  to  press  him ;  but  I 
had  abundant  reason  to  suspect  that  he  had  totally  re 
nounced  the  religion  in  which  he  had  been  so  carefully 
instructed  ;  and  which,  for  so  long  a  time,  had  exercised  so 
powerful  an  influence  over  him.  He  had  secretly  returned 
to  the  practice  of  certain  wild  rites,  which  in  his  early 
youth,  he  had  learned  from  his  mother,  who  had  herself 
been  kidnapped  from  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  who  had 
been,  as  he  had  often  told  me,  zealously  devoted  to  her 
country's  superstitions.  He  would  sometimes  talk  wildly 
and  incoherently  about  having  seen  the  spirit  of  his  depart 
ed  wife,  and  of  some  promise  he  had  made  to  the  apparition ; 
and  I  was  led  to  believe  that  he  suffered  under  occasional 
fitB  ?f  partial  insanity. 


68  MEMOIRS    OF 

At  all  events,  he  was  in  most  respects,  an  altered  man. 
He  had  ceased  to  be  the  humble  and  obedient  slave,  con 
tented  with  his  lot,  and  zealously  devoted  to  his  master's 
service.  Instead  of  promoting  his  master's  interest,  it 
seemed  now  to  be  his  study  and  his  aim  to  do  as  much 
mischief  as  possible.  There  were  two  or  three  artful, 
daring,  unquiet  spirits  on  the  plantation,  from  whom  till 
lately,  he  had  kept  aloof,  but  whose  acquaintance  he  now 
sought,  and  whose  confidence  he  soon  obtained.  They 
found  him  bold  and  prudent,  and  what  was  more,  trusty 
and  magnanimous  ;  and  they  soon  gave  place  to  his  superi 
ority  of  intellect,  and  acknowledged  him  as  their  leader. 
They  were  joined  by  some  others,  whose  only  motive  was 
the  desire  of  plunder,  and  they  extended  their  depredations 
to  every  part  of  the  plantation. 

In  this  new  character,  Thomas  still  gave  evidence  that 
he  was  no  ordinary  man.  He  conducted  his  enterprises 
with  singular  address  ;  and  when  all  other  stratagems  by 
which  to  save  his  companions  from  detection  proved  un 
availing,  he  had  still  one  resource  that  showed  the  native 
nobleness  of  his  soul.  Such  was  the  steady  firmness  of  his 
mind,  and  the  masculine  vigor  of  his  constitution,  that  he 
was  enabled  to  do  what  few  men  could.  He  could  brave 
even  the  torture  of  the  lash — a  torture,  as  I  have  said 
already,  not  less  terrible  than  that  of  the  rack  itself.  When 
every  other  resource  failed  him,  he  was  ready  to  shield  his 
companions  by  a  voluntary  confession  ;  and  to  concentrate 
upon  himself  a  punishment,  which  he  knew  that  some  among 
them  were  too  feeble  and  faint-hearted  to  endure.  Mag 
nanimity  such  as  this,  is  esteemed  even  in  a  freeman  the 
highest  pitch  of  virtue  ; — how  then  shall  we  sufficiently 
admire  it  in  a  slave  ? 

Thank  God,  tyranny  is  not  omnipotent ! 

Though  it  crush  its  victims  to  the  earth ;  and  tread  them 
into  the  dust ;  and  brutify  them  by  every  possible  inven 
tion  ;  it  cannot  totally  extinguish  the  spirit  of  manhood 
within  them.  Here  it  glimmers  ;  and  there  it  secretly 
burns ;  sooner  or  later,  to  burst  forth  in  a  flame,  that  will 
not  be  quenched,  arid  cannot  be  kept  under ! 

So  long  as  I  was  in  the  confidence  of  Mr  Martin,  I  was 


ARCHT   MOORE.  69 

able  to  render  Thomas  essential  service,  by  informing  him 
of  the  suspicions,  plans,  and  stratagems  of  the  overseer.  It 
was  not  long  however,  before  I  forfeited  that  confidence  ; 
not  because  Mr  Martin  entertained  any  suspicions  of  my 
playing  him  false, — for  it  was  very  easy  to  throw  dust  into 
the  eyes  of  so  stupid  a  fellow, — but  because  I  did  not  come 
up  to  his  notions  of  the  spirit  and  the  duty  of  a  driver. 
The  season  was  sickly ;  and  as  the  hands  who  composed 
my  gang  were  from  a  more  northern  climate,  and  not  yet 
seasoned  to  the  pestiferous  atmosphere  of  a  rice  plantation, 
they  suffered  a  good  deal  from  sickness,  and  several  of  them 
were  often  unable  to  work.  I  had  explained  this  to  Mr 
Martin,  and  he  seemed  to  be  satisfied  with  my  explanation ; 
but  riding  into  the  field  one  day,  in  a  particularly  bad  hu 
mor,  and  I  believe,  a  little  excited  with  liquor,  he  got  into 
a  towering  rage  at  finding  not  half  my  gang  in  the  field,  and 
more  than  half  the  tasks  untouched. 

He  demanded  the  reason. 

I  told  him  that  the  hands  were  sick. 

He  swore  they  had  no  business  to  be  sick ;  he  was  tired, 

he  said,  of  this   talk    about    cloknocc  ;    IIQ    knpw  vxwy  wall  it 

was  all  sham ;  and  he  was  determined  to  be  imposed  upon 
no  longer.  "  If  any  more  complaints  are  made  of  sickness, 
Archy,  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  whip  the  scoundrels 
and  set  them  to  work." 

"  What,"  said  I,  "  if  they  are  really  sick?" 

"  Sick  or  not  sick,  I  tell  you.  If  they  are  not  sick  a 
whipping  is  no  more  than  they  deserve  ;  and  if  they  are, 
why  nothing  is  so  likely  to  do  them  good  as  a  little  blood 
letting." 

"  In  that  case,"  said  I,  "  you  had  better  appoint  another 
driver ;  I  should  make  but  a  poor  hand  at  whipping  sick 
people." 

"  Hold  your  tongue,  you  damned  insolent  blackguard. 
Who  gave  you  leave  to  advise  me,  or  dispute  my  orders  ? 
Hand  me  your  whip,  you  rascal." 

I  did  so ;  and  Mr  Martin  thereupon  administered  upon 
rne  a  fresh  infliction  of  that  same  discipline  he  had  bestowed 
when  he  first  put  the  whip  into  my  hand.  So  ended  my 
drivership ;  and  though  I  now  lost  my  double  allowance, 


70  MEMOIRS    OF 

and  was  obliged  to  turn  into  the  field  again,  and  perform 
my  task  like  the  other  hands,  I  cannot  say  that  I  much 
regretted  it.  It  was  a  pitiful  and  sorry  office,  which  no 
one  but  a  scoundrel  ever  ought  to  undertake. 

I  now  united  myself  more  closely  to  the  party  of  Thom 
as,  and  joined  heart  and  hand  in  all  their  enterprises.  Our 
depredations  became  at  last  so  considerable,  that  Mr  Martin 
was  obliged  to  establish  a  regular  watch,  consisting  of  his 
drivers  and  a  few  of  their  subordinates,  who  kept  prowling 
about  the  plantation  all  night,  and  made  it  unsafe  to  venture 
into  the  fields.  This  arrangement  was  hastened  by  a  cir 
cumstance  that  happened  upon  the  plantation,  about  which 
a  very  strict  inquiry  was  instituted,  but  which  led  to  no 
definite  result.  On  one  and  the  same  night,  general  Car 
ter's  splendid  plantation-seat,  and  his  expensive  rice  mills 
were  discovered  to  be  on  fire  ;  and  notwithstanding  all 
efforts  to  save  them,  both  were  totally  consumed.  Several 
of  the  slaves,  and  Thomas  among  the  rest,  were  put  to  a 
sort  of  torture  to  make  them  acknowledge  some  participa 
tion  in  this  house-burning.  That  cruelty  availed  nothing. 
They  all  stoutly  denied  knowing  any  thing  about  it.  I 
was,  as  I  have  said,  very  much  in  Thomas's  confidence  ; 
yet  he  never  spoke  to  me  about  that  fire.  As  he  was  one 
of  those  men  who  know  how  to  keep  their  own  secrets,  I 
always  suspected  that  he  knew  much  more  about  the  matter 
than  he  chose  to  divulge. 

At  all  events,  it  was  evidently  a  much  more  potent  feel 
ing,  than  the  mere  love  of  plunder  by  which  Thomas  was 
actuated.  Since  his  wife's  death,  he  sometimes  drank  to 
excess  ;  but  this  was  seldom,  and  there  never  was  a  man 
more  temperate  in  his  meats  and  drinks,  or  less  fastidious 
than  Thomas  generally  was.  He  had  formerly  dressed 
with  much  neatness ;  now  he  neglected  his  dress  altogether. 
He  did  not  love  society  ;  he  had  little  intercourse  with 
any  body  except  with  me  ;  and  it  was  not  always  that  he 
seemed  to  wish  even  for  my  company.  Thomas  had  little 
use  for  his  share  of  the  plunder ;  and  in  fact,  he  generally 
distributed  it  among  his  companions. 

When  the  thing  was  first  proposed,  he  seemed  to  have 
little  inclination  to  extend  our  depredations  beyond  the 


ARCHY    MOORE.  71 

limits  of  Loosahachee.  But  as  it  was  no  longer  safe  to 
continue  them  there  ;  and  as  his  companions  had  rioted 
too  long  in  plunder  to  be  willing  to  relinquish  it,  Thomas 
yielded  at  last  to  their  urgent  solicitations,  and  led  us, 
night  after  night,  to  the  neighboring  plantations.  We  soon 
pushed  our  proceedings  so  far,  as  to  attract  the  notice  of 
the  overseers,  whose  domains  we  had  invaded.  At  first, 
they  supposed  that  the  thieves  were  to  be  looked  for  at 
home ;  and  numberless  were  the  severities  they  exercised 
upon  those  whom  they  suspected.  But  in  spite  of  all  their 
cruelties,  the  depredations  were  still  continued  ;  and  such 
was  the  singular  art  and  cunning  which  Thomas  displayed, 
in  varying  the  scene  and  manner  of  our  visits,  that  for  a 
long  time,  we  escaped  all  the  traps  and  ambushes  that  were 
planned  against  us. 

We  were  one  night,  in  a  rice  field,  and  had  almost  filled 
our  bags,  when  the  watchful  ear  of  Thomas  detected  a 
sound,  as  if  of  some  one  cautiously  approaching.  He  sup 
posed  it  might  be  the  patrol,  which,  of  late,  instead  of 
whiling  away  their  time  by  the  help  of  a  fiddle  and  a  bottle 
of  whiskey,  had  grown  more  active,  and  actually  performed 
some  of  the  duties  of  a  night  watch.  Under  this  impres 
sion,  he  gave  a  signal  for  us  to  steal  off  quietly,  in  a  certain 
order  which  he  had  arranged  before  hand.  The  field  was 
bordered  on  one  side,  by  a  deep  and  wide  river,  from  which 
it  was  protected  by  a  high  embankment.  We  had  come 
by  water  ;  and  our  canoe  lay  in  the  river,  under  the  shade 
of  a  clump  of  bushes  and  small  trees  which  grew  upon  the 
dike.  One  by  one,  we  cautiously  stole  over  the  bank, 
carefully  keeping  in  the  shade  of  the  bushes,  and  all  but 
Thomas  were  already  in  the  boat.  We  were  waiting  for 
our  leader,  who,  as  usual,  was  the  last  man  in  the  retreat, 
when  we  heard  several  shouts  and  cries,  which  seemed  to 
indicate  that  he  was  discovered,  if  not  taken.  The  sound 
of  two  musket  shots  fired  in  rapid  succession,  increased  our 
terror.  We  hastily  shoved  the  boat  from  the  shore  ;  and 
pushing  her  into  the  current  of  the  flood-tide,  which  was 
setting  up  the  river,  we  were  carried  rapidly  and  silently 
out  of  sight  of  our  landing  place.  The  shouts  were  still 
continued ;  but  they  grew  fainter  and  fainter,  and  seemed 


72  MEMOIRS    OF 

to  take  a  direction  from  the  river.  We  now  put  out  our 
paddles,  and  plying  with  all  our  strength,  we  pretty  soon 
reached  a  small  cove  or  creek,  the  place  where  we  kept  our 
boat,  and  at  which  we  were  accustomed  to  embark.  We 
drew  the  canoe  on  shore,  and  carefully  concealed  it  among 
the  high  grass.  Then,  without  taking  out  our  rice-bags, 
and  leaving  our  shoes  in  the  boat,  we  ran  towards  Loosa- 
hachee,  which  we  reached  without  any  further  adventure. 

I  was  very  anxious  about  Thomas  ;  but  I  had  scarcely 
thrown  myself  upon  my  bed,  before  I  heard  a  light  tap  at 
the  door  of  my  cabin,  which  I  knew  to  be  his.  I  sprang 
up  and  let  him  in.  He  was  panting  for  breath  and  covered 
with  mud.  Thomas  said,  that  just  as  he  was  going  to 
climb  the  embankment,  he  looked  behind  him,  and  saw  two 
men  rapidly  approaching.  They  seemed  to  observe  him 
just  at  the  same  moment,  and  called  to  him  to  stop.  If  he 
had  attempted  to  reach  the  boat,  it  would  have  drawn  them 
that  way,  and  perhaps  led  to  the  detection  of  the  whole 
company.  The  moment  they  called  to  him,  he  dropped 
his  rice-bag,  and  stooping  as  low  as  he  could,  he  pushed 
rapidly  through  the  rice  in  a  direction  from  the  river.  His 
pursuers  raised  a  loud  shout,  and  fired  their  muskets  at  him, 
— but  without  effect.  He  jumped  several  cross  ditches, 
made  for  the  high  ground,  at  a  distance  from  the  river,  and 
drew  off  the  patrol  in  that  direction.  They  pursued  him 
closely  ;  but  as  he  was  very  strong  and  active,  and  well 
acquainted  with  the  place,  he  succeeded  in  escaping  from 
among  the  ditches  and  embankments  of  the  rice-field,  gained 
the  high  grounds,  and  took  a  direction  towards  Loosahachee. 
But  though  he  had  distanced  his  pursuers,  they  had  still 
kept  upon  his  track  ;  and  he  expected  that  they  would  fol 
low  him  up,  and  would  shortly  be  arriving. 

While  Thomas  was  telling  his  adventures,  he  had  stripped 
off  his  wet  clothes,  and  washed  off  the  mud  with  which  he 
was  covered.  I  furnished  him  with  a  dry  suit,  which  he 
took  with  him  to  his  own  cabin  which  was  close  by  mine. 
I  hastened  round  to  the  cabins  of  our  companions  and  told 
them  what  visitors  to  expect.  The  barking  of  all  the  plan 
tation  dogs  pretty  soon  informed  us  that  the  patrol  was 
coming.  They  had  roused  up  the  overseer,  and  with 


ARCHY    MOORE. 


73 


torches  in  their  hands,  they  entered  and  searched  every 
cabin  in  the  quarter.  But  we  were  prepared  for  their  visit ; 
we  were  roused  with  difficulty  out  of  a  deep  sleep ;  and 
seemed  to  be  very  much  astonished  at  this  unseasonable 
disturbance. 

The  search  proved  to  be  a  very  useless  one  ;  but  as  the 
patrol  were  certain  that  they  had  traced  the  fugitive  to 
Loosahachee,  the  overseer  of  the  plantation  upon  which 
we  had  been  depredating,  came  over  the  next  morning  to 
search  out  and  punish  the  culprit.  He  was  accompanied 
by  several  other  men,  who  it  seems  were  freeholders  of 
the  district,  selected  with  such  forms,  or  rather  such  neglect 
of  all  form,  as  the  laws  of  Carolina  prescribe  in  such  cases. 
Five  Carolina  freeholders,  selected  at  hap-hazard,  constitute 
such  a  court  as  in  most  other  countries,  would  hardly  be 
trusted  with  the  final  adjudication  of  any  matter  above  the 
value  of  forty  shillings  at  the  utmost.  But  in  that  part  oi 
the  world,  they  not  only  have  the  power  of  judging  all 
charges  against  slaves,  and  sentencing  the  accused  to  death ; 
but  what  the  Carolinians,  doubtless  consider  a  much  graver 
matter — the  right  of  saddling  the  state  treasury  with  the 
estimated  value  of  the  culprit.  This  law  for  refunding  to 
the  masters,  nominally  a  part,  but  what  by  over- valuation, 
usually  amounts  to  the  entire  value,  of  condemned  slaves,, 
deprives  the  poor  wretches  of  that  protection  against  an 
unjust  sentence,  which  otherwise  they  might  find  in  the 
pecuniary  interest  of  their  masters  ;  and  leaves  them  with 
out  any  sort  of  shield  against  the  prejudice,  carelessness,  or 
stupidity  of  their  judges.  But  why  should  we  expect  any 
thing  like  equity  or  fairness  in  the  execution  of  laws  which 
themselves  are  founded  upon  the  grossest  wrong  ?  It  must 
be  confessed,  that  in  this  matter  the  Americans  preserve 
throughout,  an  admirable  consistency. 

A  table  was  set  out  in  the  passage  of  the  overseer's 
house  ;  some  glasses  and  a  bottle  of  whiskey  were  placed 
upon  it ;  and  the  court  proceeded  to  business.  We  were 
all  brought  up  and  examined,  one  after  the  other.  The 
only  witnesses  were  the  patrol  who  had  pursued  Thomas ; 
and  they  were  ordered  by  the  court  to  pick  out  the  culprits. 
That  was  rather  a  difficult  matter.  There  were  between 

VOL.    II.  7 


74  MEMOIRS    OF 

sixty  and  seventy  men  of  us  ;  the  night  had  been  cloudy 
and  without  a  moon ;  and  the  patrol  had  only  caught  some 
hasty  and  uncertain  glimpses  of  the  person  whom  they  had 
followed.  The  court  seemed  rather  vexed  at  their  hesita 
tion.  Yet  perhaps  it  was  not  very  unreasonable ;  since 
they  were  quite  unable  to  agree  together  as  to  what  sort  of  a 
man  it  was.  One  thought  him  short ;  the  other  was  certain 
that  he  was  quite  tall.  The  first,  pronounced  him  a  stout, 
well-set  fellow ;  the  other  had  taken  him  to  be  very 
slender. 

By  this  time,  the  first  bottle  of  whiskey  was  emptied. 
and  a  second  was  put  upon  the  table.  The  court  now  told 
the  witnesses  that  it  would  not  do ;  they  did  not  come  up 
to  the  mark  at  all ;  and  if  they  went  on  at  that  rate,  the 
fellow  would  escape  altogether.  Just  at  this  moment,  the 
overseer  of  the  plantation  which  had  been  plundered,  rode 
up ;  and  as  soon  as  he  had  dismounted,  he  stepped  forward 
to  the  relief  of  the  witnesses.  He  said,  that  while  the  court 
was  organizing,  he  had  taken  the  opportunity,  to  ride  over 
and  examine  the  rice-field,  in  which  the  rogue  had  been 
started  up.  It  was  much  trampled  in  places,  and  there 
were  a  great  many  foot-prints  ;  but  they  wrere  all  just  alike, 
and  seemed  to  have  been  made  by  the  same  person.  He 
took  a  little  stick  from  his  pocket,  on  which,  he  said,  he  had 
carefully  marked  their  exact  length  and  breadth. 

Now  this  was  a  trick  for  detecting  people*  which  Thomas 
understood  very  well ;  and  he  had  taken  good  care  to  be 
prepared  for  it.  Our  whole  company  were  provided  with 
shoes  of  the  largest  size  we  could  get,  and  all  exactly  of 
the  same  pattern  ;  so  that  our  tracks  had  the  appearance  of 
being  made  by  a  single  person,  and  he  a  fellow  with  a  very 
large  foot. 

This  speech  of  the  overseer  seemed  to  revive  the  droop 
ing  hopes  of  the  judges ;  and  they  made  us  all  sit  down 
upon  the  ground  and  have  our  feet  measured.  There  was 
a  man  on  the  plantation  named  Billy,  a  harmless,  stupid 
fellow,  wholly  unconnected  with  us  ;  but  unluckily  for 
him,  the  only  one  of  all  the  slaves  whose  foot  corresponded 
at  all  with  the  measure.  The  length  of  this  poor  fellow's 
foot  was  fatal  to  him.  The  judges  shouted  with  one  voice. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  7& 

and  in  the  style  of  condemnation  to  be  expected  from  such 
a  court,  that  "  they  would  be  damned  if  he  was  not  the 
thief."  It  was  in  vain  that  the  poor  fellow  denied  the  charge 
and  pleaded  for  mercy.  His  terror,  confusion,  and  surprise, 
only  served  to  confirm  the  opinion  of  his  guilt ;  and  the 
more  he  denied,  and  the  louder  he  pleaded,  the  more 
positively  his  judges  were  determined  against  him.  Without 
further  ceremony  they  pronounced  him  guilty,  and  sentenced 
him  to  be  hung ! 

The  sentence  was  no  sooner  pronounced  than  prepara 
tions  were  made  for  its  execution.  An  empty  barrel  was 
brought  out,  and  placed  under  a  tree  that  stood  before  the 
door.  The  poor  fellow  was  mounted  upon  it ;  the  halter 
was  put  about  his  neck,  and  fastened  to  a  limb  over  his 
head.  The  judges  had  already  become  so  drunk  as  to 
have  lost  all  sense  of  judicial  decorum.  One  of  them 
kicked  away  the  barrel,  and  the  unhappy  victim  of  Carolina 
justice  dropped  struggling  into  eternity. 

The  execution  over,  the  slaves  were  sent  into  the  field  ; 
while  Mr  Martin,  with  the  judges  and  witnesses,  and  several 
others  whom  the  fame  of  the  trial  had  drawn  to  Loosaha- 
chee,  commenced  a  regular  drunken  debauch,  which  they 
kept  up  all  that  day,  and  the  night  following. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  authority  of  masters  over  their  slaves  is  in  general 
a  continual  reign  of  terror.  A  base  and  dastard  fear  is  the 
sole  principle  of  human  nature  to  which  the  slave-holder 
appeals.  When  it  was  determined  to  hang  the  poor  fellow, 
whose  fate  I  have  described  in  the  last  chapter,  his  judges 
could  not  know,  nor  do  I  suppose,  they  much  cared, 
whether  he  were  innocent  or  guilty.  Their  great  object 
was  to  terrify  the  survivors  ;  and  by  an  example  of  what 
they  would  denominate  wholesome  and  necessary  severity, 
to  deter  from  any  further  trespasses  upon  the  neighboring 
plantations.  In  this  they  succeeded  ;  for  though  Thomas 


76  MEMOIRS    OF 

endeavored  to  keep  up  our  spirits,  we  were  thoroughly 
scared,  and  felt  little  inclination  to  second  his  boldness, 
which  seemed  to  grow  more  determined,  the  more  obsta 
cles  it  encountered. 

One  of  our  confederates  in  particular,  was  so  alarmed  at 
the  fate  of  poor  Billy,  that  he  seemed  to  have  lost  all  self- 
control  ;  and  we  \vere  in  constant  fear  lest  he  should  betray 
us.  When  the  first  paroxysm  of  his  terror  was  at  its  height, 
the  evening  after  he  had  witnessed  the  execution,  I  believe 
he  would  gladly  have  confessed  the  whole,  if  he  could  have 
found  a  white  man  sober  enough  to  listen  to  him.  After  a 
while,  he  grew  more  calm ;  but  in  the  course  of  the  day  he 
had  dropped  some  hints,  which  \vere  carefully  treasured  up 
by  one  of  the  drivers.  He  reported  them,  as  I  discovered, 
to  the  overseer ;  but  Mr  Martin  had  not  yet  recovered  from 
the  effects  of  the  frolic  ;  and  he  was  too  drunk  and  stupid 
to  understand  a  word  that  the  driver  said  to  him. 

We  had  begun  to  get  the  better  of  our  fears,  when  a  new 
incident  happened,  which  determined  us  to  seek  our  safety 
in  flight.  Some  persons,  in  passing  along  the  river  bank, 
had  discovered  our  canoe,  which  in  the  hurry  of  our  retreat, 
we  had  taken  too  little  care  to  conceal.  It  contained  not 
only  our  bags  full  of  rice, — for  we  had  not  yet  recovered 
courage  enough  to  go  after  them, — but  our  shoes  also,  all 
exactly  of  the  same  size,  and  corresponding  with  the  meas 
ure  which  had  been  produced  upon  the  trial.  Here  was 
ample  proof  that  quite  a  number  had  been  engaged  in  the 
scheme  <3f  depredation  ;  and  as  one  of  the  company  had 
been  traced  to  Loosahachee,  it  would  be  reasonable  to  look 
for  the  others  upon  the  same  plantation.  Luckily  I  ob 
tained  an  early  intimation  of  this  discovery,  by  means  of 
one  of  the  overseer's  house-servants,  with  whom  I  had  the 
policy  to  keep  up  a  pretty  intimate  connection.  A  man 
had  arrived  at  the  overseer's  house,  his  horse  dripping  with 
foam, — and  with  an  appearance  of  great  haste  and  impa 
tience,  he  had  asked  to  see  the  overseer.  The  moment  he 
came  in,  the  stranger  requested  to  speak  with  him  alone  ; 
and  Mr  Martin  took  his  guest  into  another  room  and  locked 
the  door.  The  girl,  who  was  my  spy  and  informant,  under 
an  appearance  of  the  greatest  simplicity,  was  artful  and 


ARCHY   MOORE.  77 

intelligent ;  and  she  was  prompted  to  overhear  this  secret 
conversation,  as  much  by  her  own  curiosity,  as  by  the  sus 
picion  that  it  might  possibly  be  something,  in  which  I  would 
take  an  interest.  She  contrived  to  conceal  herself  in  a 
closet,  which  was  separated  from  the  room  in  which  the 
overseer  and  his  visitor  were  conversing,  only  by  a  thin 
partition  ;  and  having  overheard  his  story,  the  substance  of 
which  I  have  already  mentioned, — and  learned  besides,  that 
the  court  would  hold  a  new  session  at  Loosahachee,  the  day 
following, — she  hastened  to  inform  me  of  what  she  had 
heard.  She  knew  nothing  in  particular,  of  our  affairs  ;  but 
she  had  reason  to  believe  that  this  piece  of  news  would  not 
be  entirely  uninteresting  to  me. 

I  informed  Thomas  of  what  she  had  told  me.  We  agreed 
at  once,  that  our  best  chance  of  safety  was  in  flight ;  and 
we  immediately  communicated  our  intention,  and  the  cause 
of  it,  to  the  rest  of  our  confederates.  They  were  anxious 
to  accompany  us  ;  and  we  all  resolved  to  be  off  that  very 
night. 

As  soon  as  evening  came  on,  we  stole  away  from  the 
plantation  and  gained  the  woods  in  company.  As  we  an 
ticipated  that  a  very  diligent  search  would  be  made  for  us, 
we  thought  it  best  to  separate.  Thomas  and  myself  resolved 
to  keep  together  ;  the  others  scattered  and  took  various  di 
rections.  As  long  as  the  darkness  lasted,  we  travelled  on 
as  rapidly  as  we  could.  When  the  morning  began  to 
appear,  we  plunged  into  a  thick  swampy  piece  of  wroods, 
and  having  broken  down  some  branches  and  young  trees, 
we  made  as  dry  a  bed  as  we  were  able,  and  lay  down  to 
sleep.  We  were  much  fatigued  with  our  long  and  rapid 
journey,  and  slept  soundly.  It  was  past  noon  when  we 
waked.  Our  appetites  were  sharp,  but  we  had  no  provis 
ions.  Just  as  we  were  beginning  to  consider  what  course 
it  would  be  best  for  us  to  pursue,  we  heard  the  distant  bay 
ing  of  a  hound.  Thomas  listened  for  a  moment,  and  then 
exclaimed  that  he  knew  that  cry.  It  was  a  famous  dog,  a 
cross  of  the  blood-hound,  which  Mr  Martin  had  long  had  in 
training,  and  upon  whose  performances  in  tracking  out  run 
aways  he  very  much  prided  himself.  The  place  where  we 
were,  was  a  thick  swamp,  in  which  it  was  difficult  to  move, 
7* 


78  MEMOIRS    OF 

and  not  easy  to  stand.  To  cross  it  would  be  impossible; 
and  we  resolved  to  get  into  the  edge  of  it,  where  the  ground 
was  harder,  and  the  undergrowth  thinner,  and  to  continue 
our  flight.  We  did  so;  but  the  hound  gained  rapidly  upon 
us,  and  his  baying  sounded  louder  and  louder.  Thomas 
drew  a  stout  sharp  knife,  which  he  carried  in  his  pocket. 
We  were  now  just  at  the  border  where  the  dry  ground 
came  down  upon  the  swamp,  and  looking  behind  us,  across 
the  level  and  open  woods,  we  could  see  the  hound  coming 
on  with  his  nose  to  the  ground,  and  uttering  at  intervals  a 
deep  and  savage  cry.  Farther  behind,  but  still  in  full  view, 
we  saw  a  man  on  horseback,  whom  we  took  to  be  Mr 
Martin  himself. 

The  dog  was  evidently  upon  our  track  ;  and  following  it 
to  the  place  where  we  had  first  plunged  into  the  swamp,  he 
disappeared  from  our  view.  But  we  could  still  hear  his 
clamor,  which  grew  louder  and  almost  constant ;  and  we 
soon  perceived  by  the  rustling  and  cracking  of  the  under 
wood  that  he  was  close  upon  us.  At  this  moment  we 
faced  about,  and  stood  at  bay ; — Thomas  in  front,  with  his 
knife  in  hand,  and  I  just  behind,  with  a  sharp  and  heavy 
lightwood  knot,  the  best,  indeed  the  only  weapon,  of  which 
I  could  avail  myself.  Presently  the  dog  emerged  from  the 
swamp.  The  moment  he  saw  us,  he  redoubled  his  cry, 
and  dashed  forward  foaming  and  open-mouthed.  He  made 
a  great  leap  directly  at  Thomas's  throat,  but  only  succeed 
ed  in  seizing  his  left  arm,  which  Thomas  raised  as  a  shield 
against  the  dog's  attack.  At  the  same  instant  he  dealt  a 
stroke  with  his  knife,  which  penetrated  to  the  hilt,  and  dog 
and  man  came  struggling  to  the  ground.  How  the  contest 
would  have  ended  had  Thomas  been  alone,  is  very  doubt 
ful;  for  though  the  hound  soon  received  several  wounds, 
they  only  seemed  to  increase  his  ferocity,  and  he  still  strug 
gled  to  get  at  the  throat  of  his  antagonist.  My  lightwood 
knot  now  did  good  service.  Two  or  three  heavy  blows 
upon  the  dog's  head  laid  him  senseless  and  sprawling  on 
the  ground. 

While  we  had  been  awaiting  the  dog's  attack,  and  during 
the  contest,  we  had  scarcely  thought  of  his  master  ;  but 
looking  up,  after  it  was  over,  we  discovered  that  Mr  Martin 


ARCHY    MOORE.  79 

was  already  very  near  us.  When  the  dog  took  to  the 
swamp,  his  master  had  followed  along  upon  its  edge,  and 
came  suddenly  upon  us  before  we  had  expected  him.  He 
pointed  his  gun  and  called  upon  us  to  surrender.  Thomas 
no  sooner  saw  the  overseer,  than  he  seemed  to  lose  all  his 
self-control,  and  grasping  his  knife,  he  rushed  directly  upon 
him.  Mr  Martin  fired ; — but  the  buck-shot  rattled  harm 
lessly  among  the  trees,  and  as  he  was  attempting  to  wheel 
his  horse,  Thomas  dashed  upon  him,  seized  him  by  the 
arm,  and  dragged  him  to  the  ground.  The  horse  ran 
frightened  through  the  woods  ;  and  it  was  in  vain  that  I 
attempted  to  stop  him.  We  looked  round  in  expectation 
of  seeing  some  others  of  the  huntsmen  coming  up.  None 
were  in  sight ;  and  we  seized  the  opportunity  to  retreat, 
and  to  carry  our  prisoner  into  the  covert  of  the  swamp. 

We  learned  from  him,  that  by  the  time  the  court  and 
their  attendants  arrived  at  Loosahachee,  our  flight  had  been 
discovered,  and  that  it  was  immediately  resolved  to  raise 
the  neighborhood,  and  to  commence  a  general  search  for 
the  runaways.  All  the  horses,  dogs  and  men  that  could 
be  come  at,  were  put  into  requisition.  They  were  divided 
into  parties,  and  immediately  commenced  beating  through 
the  woods  and  swamps  in  the  neighborhood. 

A  party  of  five  or  six  men,  with  Mr  Martin  and  his 
blood-hound,  had  traced  three  of  our  companions  into  a 
thick  swamp,  just  on  the  bank  of  a  river.  The  pursuers 
dismounted,  and  with  their  guns  in  their  hands,  they  fol 
lowed  the  dog  into  the  thicket.  Our  poor  fellows  were  so 
overcome  with  fatigue,  that  they  slept  till  the  very  moment 
that  the  hound  sprang  in  upon  them.  He  seized  one  of 
them  by  the  throat,  and  held  him  to  the  ground.  The 
others  ran ;  and  as  they  ran,  the  pursuers  fired.  One  of 
the  fugitives  fell  dead,  horribly  mangled  and  cut  to  pieces 
with  buck-shot ;  the  other  still  continued  his  flight.  As 
soon  as  the  dog  could  be  compelled  to  quit  his  hold  of  the 
man  he  had  seized, — which,  was  not  without  difficulty  and 
delay, — he  was  put  upon  the  track  of  the  surviving  fugitive. 
He  followed  it  to  the  river,  where  he  stood  at  fault.  The 
man  had  probably  plunged  in,  and  swum  to  the  other  side ; 
but  as  the  dog  could  not  be  made  to  take  the  water,  and  as 


SO  MEMOIRS    OF 

the  swamp  on  the  opposite  bank  was  reputed  to  be  very 
soft  and  dangerous,  no  further  pursuit  was  made ;  the  chase 
in  that  direction  was  given  up,  and  the  poor  fellow  was 
suffered  to  escape  for  the  present. 

The  pursuers  now  separated.  Two  of  them  undertook 
to  carry  back  to  Loosahachee  the  captive  they  had  taken, 
and  the  other  three,  with  Mr  Martin  and  his  hound,  were 
to  continue  the  hunt  in  search  of  the  rest  of  us.  They 
learned  from  their  captive  the  place  at  which  we  had  part 
ed  company,  and  the  direction  which  the  several  parties 
had  taken.  After  beating  about  for  some  time,  the  hound 
struck  upon  our  trail,  and  opened  in  full  cry  ;  but  the 
horses  of  Mr  Martin's  companions  were  so  broken  down, 
that  when  he  began  to  spur  on,  to  keep  up  with  the  hound, 
he  soon  left  them  far  behind.  Mr  Martin  ended  his  story 
by  advising  us  to  go  in  and  surrender  ourselves  ;  giving  us 
his  word  and  honor  as  a  gentleman  and  an  overseer,  that  if 
we  would  offer  him  no  further  violence  or  injury,  he  would 
protect  us  from  punishment,  and  reward  us  most  handsomely. 

The  sun  was  now  setting.  The  short  twilight  which 
follows  a  Carolina  sunset  would  soon  be  succeeded  by  the 
darkness  of  a  cloudy  and  moonless  night ;  and  we  felt  but 
little  apprehension  of  being  immediately  troubled  by  our 
pursuers.  I  looked  at  Thomas,  as  if  to  inquire  what  we 
had  better  do.  He  drew  me  aside, — having  first  examined 
the  fastenings  of  our  prisoner,  whom  we  had  bound  to  a 
tree,  by  some  cords  found  in  his  own  pocket,  and  which 
were  doubtless  intended  for  a  very  different  purpose. 

Thomas  paused  for  a  moment,  as  if  to  collect  his  thoughts; 
then  pointing  to  Mr  Martin,  "Archy,"  he  said,  "that  man 
dies  to-night." 

There  was  a  wild  energy,  and  at  the  same  time,  a  steady 
coolness,  in  the  tone  in  which  he  spoke.  It  startled  me ; 
at  first  I  made  no  answer  ;  and  as  meanwhile  I  looked 
Thomas  in  the  face,  I  saw  there  an  expression  of  stern  ex 
ultation,  and  a  fixedness  of  purpose  not  to  be  shaken.  His 
eyes  flashed  fire,  as  he  repeated, — but  in  a  low  and  quiet 
tone  that  contrasted  strangely  with  the  matter  of  his  speech, 
— "  I  tell  you,  Archy,  that  man  dies  to-night.  She  com 
mands  it ;  I  have  promised  it ;  and  now  the  time  is  come.5' 


ARCHY    MOORE.  81 

"  Who  commands  it  ?"  I  hastily  inquired. 

"  Do  you  ask  who  ?  Archy,  that  man  was  the  murderer 
of  my  wife." 

Though  Thomas  and  I  had  lived  in  great  intimacy,  this 
was  almost  the  first  time,  since  the  death  of  his  wife,  that  he 
had  mentioned  her  to  me  in  such  plain  terms.  He  had,  it 
is  true,  now  and  then  made  some  distant  allusions  to  her ; 
and  I  recollected  that  on  several  occasions  before,  he  had 
dropped  some  strange  and  incoherent  hints  about  an  inter 
course  which  he  still  kept  up  with  her. 

The  mention  of  his  wife,  brought  tears  into  his  eyes ;— >- 
but  with  his  hand,  he  wiped  them  hastily  away,  and  soon 
recovering  his  former  air  of  calm  and  steady  determina 
tion,  he  again  repeated,  in  the  same  low  but  resolute  tone, 
"Archy,  I  tell  you  that  man  dies  to-night." 

When  I  called  to  mind  all  the  circumstances  that  had 
attended  the  death  of  Thomas's  wife,  I  could  not  but 
acknowledge  that  Mr  Martin  had  been  her  murderer.  I 
had  sympathized  with  Thomas  then,  and  I  sympathized 
with  him  now.  The  murderer  was  in  his  power  ;  he 
believed  himself  called  upon  to  execute  justice  upon  him ; 
and  1  could  not  but  acknowledge  that  his  death  would  be 
an  act  of  righteous  retribution. 

Still,  I  felt  a  sort  of  instinctive  horror  at  the  idea  of  shed 
ding  blood  ;  and  perhaps  too,  there  still  crept  about  my 
heart  some  remains  of  that  slavish  fear  and  servile  timidity, 
which  the  bolder  spirit  of  Thomas  had  wholly  shaken  off. 
I  acknowledged  that  the  life  of  the  overseer  was  justly 
forfeit ; — but  at  the  same  time,  I  reminded  Thomas  that 
Mr  Martin  had  promised,  if  we  would  carry  him  home  in 
safety,  to  procure  our  pardon  and  protect  us  from  punish 
ment. 

A  scornful  smile  played  about  the  lip  of  my  comrade 
while  I  was  speaking*  "Yes,  Archy,"  he  answered,  "par 
don  and  protection  ! — and  a  hundred  lashes,  and  a  hanging 
the  next  day  perhaps.  No  !  boy,  I  want  no  such  pardon  ; 
I  want  no  pardon  such  as  they  will  give.  I  have  been  a 
slave  too  long,  already.  I  am  now  free  ;  and  when  they 
take  me,  they  are  welcome  to  take  my  life.  Besides,  we 
cannot  trust  him  ; — if  we  wished  it,  we  cannot  trust  him. 


82  MEMOIRS    OF 

You  know  we  cannot.  They  do  not  think  themselves 
obliged  to  keep  any  promises  they  make  us.  They  will 
promise  any  thing  to  get  us  in  their  power  ;  and  then,  their 
promises  are  worthless  as  rotten  straw.  My  promises  are 
not  like  theirs  ;  and  have  I  not  told  you  that  I  have  prom 
ised  it  ?  Yes,  I  have  sworn  it ;  and  I  now  say,  once  for 
all,  that  man  must  die  to-night." 

There  was  a  strength  and  a  determination,  in  his  tone 
and  manner,  which  overpowered  me.  I  could  resist  it  no 
longer,  and  I  bade  him  do  his  pleasure.  He  loaded  the 
gun,  which  he  had  taken  from  Mr  Martin,  and  which  he 
had  held  in  his  hand  all  the  time  we  had  been  talking. 
This  done,  we  returned  to  the  overseer,  who  was  sitting  at 
the  foot  of  the  tree  to  which  we  had  bound  him.  He 
looked  up  anxiously  at  us  as  we  approached,  and  inquired 
if  we  had  determined  to  go  in  ? 

"  We  have  determined,"  answered  Thomas.  "  We 
allow  you  half  an  hour  to  prepare  for  death.  Make  the 
most  of  it.  You  have  many  sins  to  repent  of,  and  the  time 
is  short." 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  look  of  mingled  terror, 
amazement  and  incredulity,  with  which  the  overseer  heard 
these  words.  One  moment,  with  a  voice  of  authority,  he 
bade  us  untie  him;  the  next,  he  forced  a  laugh,  and  affected 
to  treat  what  Thomas  had  said,  as  a  mere  jest;  then,  yield 
ing  to  his  fears,  he  wept  like  a  child,  and  cried  and  begged 
for  mercy. 

"  Have  you  shown  it  ?  "  answered  Thomas.  "  Did  you 
show  it  to  my  poor  wife?  You  murdered  her;  and  for  hei 
life  you  must  answer  with  your  own." 

Mr  Martin  called  God  to  witness,  that  he  was  not  guilty 
of  this  charge.  He  had  punished  Thomas's  wife,  he  con 
fessed  ;  but  he  did  only  what  his  duty  as  an  overseer 
demanded  ;  and  it  was  impossible,  he  said,  that  the  few 
cuts  he  gave  her,  could  have  caused  her  death. 

"The  few  cuts!"  cried  Thomas.  '-'Thank  God,  Mr 
Martin,  that  we  do  not  torture  you  as  you  tortured  her! 
Speak  no  more,  or  you  will  but  aggravate  your  sufferings. 
Confess  your  crimes  !  Say  your  prayers  !  Do  not  spend 
your  last  moments  in  adding  falsehood  to  murder ! " 


ARCHY    MOORE.  83 

The  overseer  cowered  beneath  this  energetic  reproof. 
He  covered  his  face  with  his  hands,  bent  down  his  head, 
and  passed  a  few  moments  in  a  silence  which  was  only 
interrupted  by  an  inarticulate  sobbing.  Perhaps,  he  was 
trying  to  prepare  himself  to  die.  But  life  was  too  sweet 
to  be  surrendered  without  another  effort  to  save  it.  He 
saw  that  it  was  useless  to  appeal  to  Thomas  ;  but  rousing 
himself  once  more,  he  turned  to  me.  He  begged  me  to 
remember  the  confidence,  he  had  once  placed  in  me,  and 
the  favors,  which  as  he  said,  he  had  shown  me.  He  prom 
ised  to  purchase  us  both,  and  give  us  our  liberty,  any  thing, 
every  thing,  if  we  would  only  spare  his  life ! 

His  tears  and  piteous  lamentations  moved  me.  My  head 
grew  dizzy,  and  I  felt  such  a  faintness  and  heart-sinking, 
that  I  was  obliged  to  support  myself  against  a  tree.  Thom 
as  stood  by,  with  his  arms  folded  and  resting  on  the  gun. 
He  made  no  answer  to  the  reiterated  prayers  and  promises 
of  the  overseer.  Indeed  lie  did  not  appear  to  notice  them. 
His  eyes  were  fixed,  and  he  seemed  lost  in  thought. 

After  a  considerable  interval,  during  which  the  unhappy 
overseer  continued  to  repeat  his  prayers  and  lamentations, 
Thomas  roused  himself.  He  stepped  back  a  few  paces, 
and  raised  the  gun.  "  The  half  hour  is  out,"  he  said  ; — 
"  Mr  Martin,  are  you  ready  ? " 

"  No !  oh  no !  Spare  me,  oh  spare  me ! — one  half  hour 
longer — I  have  much — " 

He  did  not  live  to  finish  the  sentence.  The  gun  flashed ; 
the  ball  penetrated  his  brain,  and  he  fell  dead  without  a 
struggle. 


CHAPTER   XL 

WE  scraped  a  shallow  grave,  in  which  we  placed  the 
body  of  the  overseer.  We  dragged  the  dead  hound  to  the 
same  spot,  and  laid  him  with  his  master.  They  were  fit 
companions. 

We  now  resumed  our  flight, — not  as  some  may  perhaps 
suppose,  with  the  frightened  and  conscience-stricken  haste 


84  MEMOIRS    OF 

of  murderers,  but  with  that  lofty  feeling  of  manhood  vindi 
cated,  and  tyranny  visited  with  a  just  retribution,  which 
animated  the  soul  of  the  Israelitish  hero  whilst  he  fled  for 
refuge  into  the  country  of  the  Midianites  ;  and  which  burned 
in  the  bosoms  of  Wallace  and  of  Tell,  as  they  pursued  their 
midnight  flight  among  the  friendly  cliffs  and  freedom-breath 
ing  summits  of  their  native  mountains. 

There  were  no  mountains  to  receive  and  shelter  us.  But 
still  we  fled  through  the  swamps  and  barrens  of  Carolina, 
resolved  to  put,  as  soon  as  possible,  some  good  miles  be 
tween  us  and  the  neighborhood  of  Loosahachee.  It  was 
more  than  twenty-four  hours  since  we  had  tasted  food ;  yet 
such  was  the  excitement  of  our  minds  that  we  did  not  faint, 
and  were  hardly  sensible  of  weakness  or  fatigue. 

We  kept  a  northwesterly  direction,  steering  our  course 
by  the  stars,  and  we  must  have  made  a  good  distance  ;  for 
we  did  not  once  stop  to  rest,  but  pushed  forward  at  a  very 
rapid  pace  all  night.  Our  way  lay  through  the  open  "  piney 
woods,"  through  which  we  could  travel  almost  as  fast  as  on 
a  road.  Sometimes  a  swamp  or  the  appearances  of  a  plan 
tation,  would  compel  us  to  deviate  from  our  track,  but  as 
soon  as  we  could,  we  resumed  our  original  direction. 

The  darkness  of  the  night,  which  for  the  last  hour  or  two 
that  it  lasted,  had  been  increased  by  a  foggy  mist,  was  just 
beginning  to  yield  to  the  first  indistinct  grey  dawn  of  the 
morning.  We  were  passing  along  a  little  depression  in  the 
level  of  the  pine  barrens,  now  dry,  but  in  the  wet  season, 
probably  the  bed  of  a  temporary  stream,  looking  for  a 
place  in  which  to  conceal  ourselves, — when  we  suddenly 
came  upon  a  man,  lying,  as  it  seemed,  asleep  in  the  midst 
of  a  clump  of  bushes,  with  his  head  resting  on  a  bag  of 
corn.  We  recognized  him  at  once.  He  was  a  slave 
belonging  to  a  plantation  next  adjoining  Loosahachee,  with 
whom  we  had  had  some  slight  acquaintance,  but  who,  as 
we  were  informed,  had  been  a  runaway,  for  some  two  or 
three  months  past.  Thomas  shook  him  by  the  shoulder, 
and  he  wakened  in  a  terrible  fright.  We  told  him  not  to 
be  alarmed,  for  we  were  runaways  like  himself,  and  very 
much  in  need  of  his  assistance,  being  half  dead  with  bun 
ger,  and  in  a  country  with  which  we  were  totally  unac- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  85 

quainted.  At  first  the  man  appeared  very  reserved  and 
suspicious.  He  feared  it  seemed,  lest  we  might  be  decoys, 
sent  out  on  purpose  to  entrap  him.  At  last  however,  we 
succeeded  in  dissipating  his  doubts  ;  and  no  sooner  was  he 
satisfied  with  the  account  we  gave  of  ourselves,  than  he 
bade  us  follow  him,  and  we  should  presently  have  food. 

With  his  bag  of  corn  upon  his  shoulder  he  pursued  the 
shallow  ravine  in  which  we  had  found  him,  for  a  mile  or 
more,  till  at  length  it  widened  into  what  seemed  a  large 
swamp,  or  rather  a  pond  grown  up  with  trees.  We  now 
left  the  ravine,  and  followed  along  on  the  edge  of  the  pond 
for  some  distance,  when  presently  our  guide  began  wading 
in  the  water,  and  called  to  us  to  follow  him.  We  plunged 
in ;  but  before  going  far,  he  laid  down  his  bag  of  corn  upon 
a  fallen  tree,  and  going  back,  he  carefully  effaced  the  marks 
which  our  footsteps  had  made  upon  the  muddy  edge  of  the 
pond.  He  now  led  us  forward  through  mud  and  water  up 
to  our  waists,  for  near  half  a  mile.  The  gigantic  trees 
among  which  we  were  wading,  sprung  up  like  columns,, 
from  the  surface  of  the  water,  with  round,  straight,  whitish- 
colored,  branchless  trunks,  their  leafy  tops  forming  a  thick 
canopy  over  head.  There  was  scarcely  any  undergrowth, 
except  a  species  of  enormous  vines,  which  ran  twining  like 
great  cables  about  the  bodies  of  the  trees,  and  reaching 
to  the  very  tops,  helped  with  their  foliage  to  thicken 
the  canopy  above  us.  So  effectually  was  the  light  ex 
cluded,  and  so  close  did  the  trunks  of  the  trees  stand  to 
gether,  that  one  could  see  but  a  very  little  way  into  this 
watery  forest. 

The  water  began  to  grow  deeper,  and  the  wood  more 
gloomy,  and  we  were  wondering  whither  our  guide  was 
leading  us,  when  presently  we  came  to  a  little  island  which 
rose  a  few  feet  from  the  surface  of  the  water,  so  regular  and 
mound-like,  that  it  had  quite  the  appearance  of  an  artificial 
structure.  Perhaps  it  was  the  work  of  the  ancient  inhab 
itants  of  the  country,  and  the  site  of  one  of  their  forts  or 
fastnesses.  It  was  about  an  acre  in  extent,  and  was  covered 
with  a  thick  growth  of  trees,  quite  different  however,  from 
those  of  the  lake  by  which  it  was  surrounded,  and  much  in 
ferior  in  size  and  majesty.  Its  edges  were  bordered  by  low 

VOL.    II.  8 


86  MEMOIRS    OF 

shrubs  and  bushes,  whose  abundant  foliage  gave  the  islet 
the  appearance  of  a  mass  of  green.  Our  guide  pointed  out 
to  us  a  little  opening  in  the  bushes,  through  which  we 
ascended ;  and  after  having  gained  the  dry  land,  he  led  us 
through  the  thicket  along  a  narrow  and  winding  path,  till 
presently  we  came  to  a  rude  cabin  built  of  bark  and 
branches.  He  now  gave  a  peculiar  whistle,  which  was 
immediately  answered ;  and  two  or  three  men  presently 
made  their  appearance. 

They  seemed  a  good  deal  surprised  at  seeing  us,  and  me 
especially,  whom  apparently  they  took  for  a  freeman.  But 
our  guide  assured  them  that  we  were  friends  and  fellow- 
sufferers,  and  led  the  way  into  the  cabin.  Our  new  hosts 
received  us  kindly ;  and  having  heard  how  long  we  had 
been  without  food,  before  asking  us  any  further  questions, 
they  hastened  to  satisfy  our  hunger.  They  produced  beef 
and  hominy  in  abundance,  on  which  we  feasted  to  oui 
hearts'  content. 

We  were  then  called  upon  to  give  an  account  of  our 
selves.  Accordingly  we  made  a  relation  of  our  adventures, 
— omitting  however,  any  mention  of  the  fate  of  the  over 
seer  ;  and  as  our  guide,  who  knew  us,  could  confirm  a  part 
of  our  story,  our  account  was  pronounced  satisfactory,  and 
we  were  presently  admitted  to  the  privilege  of  joining  their 
fraternity. 

There  were  six  of  them,  besides  ourselves  ; — all  brave- 
fellows,  who  weary  of  daily  task-work  and  the  tyranny  of 
overseers,  had  taken  to  the  woods,  and  had  succeeded  in 
regaining  a  savage  and  stealthy  freedom,  which,  with  all 
its  hardships  and  dangers,  was  a  thousand  times  to  be  pre 
ferred  to  the  forced  labor  and  wretched  servitude  from 
which  they  had  escaped.  Our  guide  was  the  only  one  of 
them  whom  we  had  ever  seen  till  now.  The  leader  of  the 
band  had  fled  from  his  master's  plantation  in  the  neighbor 
hood,  with  a  single  companion,  some  two  or  three  years 
oefore.  They  did  not  then  know  of  the  existence  of  this 
retreat ;  but  being  sharply  pursued,  they  had  attempted  to 
cross  the  pond  or  swamp,  by  which  it  was  surrounded, — a 
thing,  I  suppose,  which  had  never  been  tried  before.  In 
this  attempt  they  were  fortunate  enough  to  light  upon  the 


ARCHY    MOORE.  87 

islet,  which  being  unknown  to  any  one  else,  had  ever  since 
served  them  as  a  secure  retreat.  They  soon  picked  up  a 
recruit  or  two  ;  and  had  afterwards  been  joined  by  their 
other  companions. 

Our  guide,  it  seems,  had  been  to  a  neighboring  planta 
tion  to  trade  for  corn  ; — a  traffic,  which  our  friends  carried 
on  with  the  slaves  of  several  of  the  nearest  plantations. 
After  the  business  was  concluded,  the  men  with  whom  he 
had  been  dealing,  had  produced  a  bottle  of  whiskey  of 
which  our  guide  had  drank  so  freely,  that  he  had  not  gone 
far  on  his  way  home,  before  his  legs  failed  him.  He  sunk 
down  in  the  place  where  we  had  found  him,  and  fell  fast 
asleep. 

Drinking  whiskey  away  from  home,  according  to  the 
prudent  laws  of  this  swamp-encircled  commonwealth,  was 
a  high  misdemeanor,  punishable  with  thirty-nine  lashes, 
which  were  forthwith  inflicted  upon  our  guide  with  a  good 
deal  of  emphasis.  He  took  it  in  good  part  though,  as  being 
the  execution  of  a  law  to  which  he  had  himself  assented, 
and  which  he  knew  was  enacted  as  much  for  his  own 
benefit,  as  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  had  just  now  carried 
it  into  execution. 

The  life  upon  which  we  now  entered  had  at  least,  the 
charm  of  novelty.  In  the  day  time  we  eat,  slept,  told 
stories  and  recounted  our  escapes ;  or  employed  ourselves 
in  dressing  skins,  making  clothes,  and  curing  provisions. 
But  the  night  was  our  season  of  adventure  and  enterprise. 
As  the  autumn  was  coming  on,  we  made  frequent  visits  to 
the  neighboring  corn  fields  and  potato  patches,  which  we 
felt  no  scruples  whatever  in  laying  under  severe  contribu 
tion.  This  however  was  only  for  a  month  or  two.  Our 
regular  and  certain  supply  was  in  the  herds  of  half  wild 
cattle,  w7hich  wander  through  the  "  piney  woods  "  and  feed 
upon  the  coarse  grass  which  they  furnish.  *  We  killed  as 
many  of  ttiese  cattle  as  we  needed,  and  their  flesh  cut  into 
long  strips,  we  dried  in  the  sun.  Thus  cured,  it  is  a  pal 
atable  food  ;  and  we  not  only  kept  a  stock  on  hand  for  our 
own  consumption,  but  it  furnished  the  principal  article  of  a 
constant  but  cautious  traffic  which,  as  I  have  already  men 
tioned,  we  carried  on  with  the  slaves  of  several  neighboring 
plantations. 


88  MEMOIRS    OF 

This  wild  life  of  the  woods  has  its  privations  and  its 
sufferings  ;  but  it  has  too,  its  charms  and  its  pleasures  ;  and 
in  its  very  worst  aspect,  it  is  a  thousand  and  ten  thousand 
times  to  be  preferred  to  that  miscalled  civilization  which 
degrades  the  noble  savage  into  a  cringing  and  broken-spir 
ited  slave ; — a  civilization,  which  purchases  the  indolence 
and  luxury  of  a  single  master,  with  the  sighs  and  tears,  the 
forced  and  unwilling  labor,  the  degradation,  misery  and 
despair  of  a  hundred  of  his  fellow  men  !  Yes — there  is 
more  of  true  manhood  in  the  bold  bosom  of  a  single  outlaw 
than  in  a  whole  nation  of  cowardly  tyrants  and  crouching 
slaves ! 


CHAPTER  XIL 

BY  the  end  of  the  winter,  the  herds  of  cattle  which  were 
accustomed  to  frequent  our  neighborhood,  were  a  good  deal 
thinned  ;  and  the  pasturage  had  now  become  so  bare  and 
withered,  that  what  remained  of  them  were  little  better 
than  walking  skeletons,  and  in  fact,  scarcely  worth  the 
trouble  of  killing. 

Moreover,  the  overseers  of  the  neighboring  plantations, 
were  beginning  to  be  very  well  aware  that  they  were  ex 
posed  to  some  pretty  regular  and  diligent  depredators.  We 
learned  from  the  slaves  with  whom  we  trafficked,  that  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  talk  about  the  rapid  disappearance  of 
the  cattle  ;  and  that  preparations  were  making  for  a  grand 
hunt  in  search  of  the  plunderers. 

With  the  double  object  of  disappointing  these  prepara 
tions,  and  of  getting  among  some  fresh  herds  of  cattle,  it 
was  resolved  that  five  of  us  should  make  an  excursion  to  a 
considerable  distance,  while  the  other  two  remained  at  home 
and  kept  close. 

One  of  our  number  undertook  to  lead  us  into  the  neigh 
borhood  of  a  plantation  beyond  the  Santee,  on  which  he 
had  been  raised.  He  knew  all  the  country  about  it  per 
fectly  well.  There  were  several  good  hiding  places,  he 
said,  in  which  we  could  conceal  ourselves  in  the  day  time ; 


ARCH*    MOORE.  89 

and  the  extensive  woods  and  wastes  furnished  a  good  range, 
and  abundance  of  cattle. 

We  set  off  under  his  guidance,  and  kept  on  for  several 
days,  or  nights  rather,  in  a  northwardly  direction.  On  the 
fifth  or  sixth  evening  of  our  journey,  we  started  soon  after 
sun-set,  and  having  travelled  till  a  little  past  midnight, 
through  a  country  of  abrupt  and  barren  sand  hills,  our  guide 
told  us  that  we  were  now  in  the  neighborhood  into  which 
he  intended  to  carry  us.  But  as  the  moon  had  gone  down, 
and  it  was  cloudy  and  quite  dark,  he  was  rather  uncertain 
as  to  the  precise  place  we  were  at ;  and  we  should  do  best, 
he  said,  to  camp  where  we  were,  till  day-light,  when  he 
would  lead  us  to  some  better  place  of  concealment. 

This  advice  was  very  acceptable ; — for  by  this  time,  we 
were  way-worn,  tired,  and  sleepy.  We  kindled  a  fire, 
cooked  the  last  of  the  provisions  we  had  brought  with  us, 
and  having  appointed  one  of  our  number  to  keep  watch, 
the  rest  of  us  lay  down  and  were  soon  fast  asleep. 

I,  at  least,  was  sleeping  soundly,  and  dreaming  of  poor 
Gassy  and  our  infant  child,  when  my  dream  was  interrupted, 
and  I  was  roused  from  my  slumbers,  by  what  seemed  a  dis 
charge  of  fire-arms  and  a  galloping  of  horses.  I  sprang 
upon  my  feet,  hardly  knowing  whether  I  was  awake.  At 
the  same  moment,  my  eye  fell  upon  Thomas,  who  had  been 
sleeping  beside  me,  and  I  perceived  that  his  clothes  were 
all  stained  with  blood.  He  had  already  gained  his  feet ; 
and  without  stopping  to  hear  or  see  any  thing  further,  we 
sprung  together  into  the  nearest  thicket,  and  fled  for  some 
time,  we  scarcely  knew  where  or  why.  At  last,  Thomas 
cried  out  that  he  could  go  no  further.  The  bleeding  of 
his  wounds  had  weakened  him  much,  and  they  were  now 
growing  stiff  and  painful.  The  morning  was  just  beginning 
to  dawn.  We  sat  down  upon  the  ground,  and  endeavored 
to  bind  up  his  wounds  the  best  we  were  able.  A  ball  or 
buck-shot  had  passed  through  the  fleshy  part  of  his  left 
arm,  between  the  shoulder  and  elbow.  Another  shot  had 
struck  him  in  the  side, — but  as  far  as  we  could  judge,  had 
glanced  on  one  of  his  ribs,  and  so  passed  off  without  doing 
any  mortal  injury.  These  wounds  had  bled  profusely,  and 
were  now  very  painful.  We  bound  them  up  as  well  as  we 
8* 


90  MEMOIRS    OF 

could ;  and  looking  round  we  found  a  little  stream  of  water 
with  which  to  wash  away  the  blood,  and  quench  our  thirst. 

Thus  recruited  and  refreshed,  we  began  to  consider 
which  way  we  should  turn,  and  what  we  were  to  do.  We 
did  not  dare  to  go  back  to  the  camp  where  we  had  slept ; 
indeed  we  were  very  doubtful  whether  we  were  able  to  do 
so ;  for  the  morning  had  been  dark,  and  we  had  fled  with 
heedless  haste,  taking  very  little  note  of  our  direction.  Our 
island  retreat  was  at  the  distance  of  some  seven  or  eight 
days  journey ;  and  as  we  had  travelled  in  the  night,  and 
not  always  in  precisely  the  same  direction,  it  would  be  no 
very  easy  matter  to  find  our  way  back  again.  However. 
Thomas  prided  himself  upon  his  woodrnanship,  and  though 
he  had  not  observed  the  course  of  our  journey  quite  so 
closely  as  he  could  have  wished,  he  still  thought  that  he 
might  succeed  in  finding  the  way  back. 

But  his  wounds  were  too  recent,  and  he  felt  too  weak, 
to  think  of  starting  off  immediately.  Besides  it  was  already 
broad  day-light ;  and  we  had  the  best  of  reasons  for  travel 
ling  only  by  night.  So  we  sought  out  a  thicket  in  which 
we  concealed  ourselves  till  night-fall. 

As  the  evening  came  on,  Thomas  declared  that  he  felt 
much  better  and  stronger ;  and  we  resolved  to  set  out  at 
once,  on  our  return.  In  the  first  place  however,  we  deter 
mined  to  make  an  attempt  to  find  the  camp  of  the  preceding 
night,  in  hopes  that  some  of  our  companions  might  have 
escaped  as  well  as  ourselves,  and  that  by  some  good  luck, 
we  might  chance  to  fall  in  with  them. 

After  wandering  about  for  some  time,  at  length  we  found 
the  camp.  Two  dead  bodies,  stiff  and  bloody,  lay  by  the 
extinguished  embers  of  the  fire.  They  seemed  to  have 
been  shot  dead  as  they  slept,  and  scarcely  to  have  moved 
a  limb.  The  bushes  about  were  stained  and  spattered  with 
blood ;  and  by  the  moon  light,  we  tracked  the  bloody  flight 
of  one  of  our  luckless  companions  for  a  considerable  dis 
tance.  This  must  have  been  our  sentinel,  who  had  proba 
bly  dropped  asleep,  and  thus  exposed  us  to  be  surprised. 

Perhaps  he  might  be  lurking  somewhere  in  the  bushes, 
wounded  and  helpless.  This  thought  emboldened  us.  We 
Shouted  and  called  aloud.  But  our  voices  echoed  through 


ARCHY   MOORE.  91 

the  woods,  and  died  away  unanswered.  We  returned 
again  to  the  camp,  and  gazed  once  more  upon  the  distorted 
faces  of  our  dead  companions.  We  could  not  bear  to  leave 
them  unburied.  I  hastily  scraped  a  shallow  trench,  and 
there  we  placed  them.  We  dropped  a  tear  upon  their 
grave,  and  sad,  dismayed,  dejected,  we  set  out  upon  our 
long,  weary  and  uncertain  journey. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

WE  travelled  slowly  all  that  night,  and  soon  after  the 
morning  dawn,  we  concealed  ourselves  again,  and  lay  down 
to  sleep.  Thomas's  wounds  were  much  better,  and  seemed 
disposed  to  heal.  The  hurt  in  his  side  was  far  less  danger 
ous  than  we  had  at  first  supposed,  and  as  the  pain  had 
subsided,  he  was  now  able  to  sleep. 

We  slept  well  enough,  but  awoke  weak  and  faint  for 
want  of  food  ;  for  it  was  now  some  twenty-four  hours  since 
we  had  tasted  any.  The  sun  was  not  yet  down ;  yet  we 
resolved  to  set  out  immediately,  in  hopes  that  day-light 
might  point  out  to  us  something  with  which  to  satisfy  our 
hunger. 

After  travelling  a  considerable  distance  through  the 
woods,  just  as  the  sun  was  setting,  we  struck  into  a  road. 
This  road  we  determined  to  follow,  in  hopes  that  it  might 
presently  lead  us  into  the  neighborhood  of  some  farm-house 
near  which  we  might  light  upon  something  eatable.  It 
was  an  unlucky  resolve ;  for  we  had  not  gone  above  half  a 
mile,  when  just  upon  the  crest  of  a  short  hill,  we  suddenly 
came  upon  three  travellers  on  horseback,  whom  the  undu 
lations  of  the  road  had  concealed  from  us,  till  we  were 
within  a  few  yards  of  each  other. 

Both  parties  were  mutually  surprised.  The  travellers 
reined  up  their  horses  and  eyed  us  sharply.  Our  appear 
ance  might  well  attract  attention.  Our  clothes, — such  as 
we  had, — were  torn  and  ragged.  Instead  of  shoes,  we 
wore  a  kind  of  high  moccasins,  made  of  untanned  ox-hide ; 


"lark  mjf  air  i  i*3emHTw.  tail  nitf  :c' 
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irti:  onf  ir-     Sin  ^Jis  1  i<:«:n  iriimi  wcum 

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I  ^TS  ICC   lil    £L   iiie  tO  3IC  IFJi 

ifrrnoiif  "_!>T 


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ilffi  i  JlUlr   IlSHniI:f-  "V'J±2L    iTlTtCn.'r    ^iiiii    Hill   ^''Frinrr  j 

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aiEai£raiia: 


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St.    IX  U 

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E: 


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Trasi  r^  innselL    Xacorj  isat  sn>in»st  n  see  ^^im: 
:nitr  :  nm  E?  iss:  JUSL  vsr?  iiL  iranf  SMIS.  3i 

za:s:  IE  "aif  ymitv  LJ?  v^=^  ^iffar  rilei  IT 

UIlI      Lr      J./      .  i.Hlttrf     V  :_'i      ".     ..I"       LI  I 

JIIT:  a 


94  MEMOIRS      OF 

It  appeared  in  the  course  of  the  conversation  between 
the  landlady  and  her  guests,  that  the  murderous  kind  of  at 
tack  to  which  our  companions  had  fallen  victims,  hut  which 
had  been  intended  for  another  party  of  runaways,  is  an 
operation  occasionally  practised  in  Lower  Carolina,  when  a 
party  of  slave-hunters  falls  in  with  a  gang  of  fugitive  slaves? 
too  large  to  be  easily  arrested. 

The  dispersion  of  the  attacking  party,  and  each  one 
shooting  and  returning  by  himself,  is  only  the  effect  of 
an  ancient  and  traditionary  prejudice.  By  the  law  of  Car 
olina,  the  killing  a  slave  is  regarded  as  murder  ;  and  though 
probably,  this  law  was  never  enforced,  and  would  doubtless 
be  treated  by  a  jury  of  modern  slave-holders,  as  an  old- 
fashioned  and  fanatical  absurdity,  there  still  linger,  in  the 
breasts  of  the  people,  some  remains  of  horror  at  the  idea  of 
deliberate  bloodshed,  and  a  sort  of  superstitious  apprehen 
sion  of  the  possible  enforcement  of  this  antiquated  law.  To 
blindfold  their  own  consciences,  and  to  avoid  the  possibility 
of  a  judicial  investigation,  each  man  of  an  attacking  party 
takes  care  to  see  none  of  the  others  when  they  fire  ;  and  no 
one  goes  to  the  place  to  ascertain  how  many  have  been 
killed  or  disabled.  The  poor  wretches  who  are  not  so  for 
tunate  as  to  be  shot  dead  upon  the  spot,  are  left  to  the  lin 
gering  torments  of  thirst,  fever,  starvation  and  festering 
wounds ;  and  when  at  length  they  die,  their  skeletons  lie 
bleaching  in  the  Carolina  sun,  proud  proofs  of  slave-holding 
civilization  and  humanity. 

While  our  captors  were  at  supper,  the  little  girl,  the 
landlady's  daughter,  came  to  look  at  us,  as  we  lay  in  the 
passage.  She  was  a  pretty  child,  and  her  soft  blue  eyes 
filled  with  tears  as  she  looked  upon  us.  I  asked  her  for 
water.  She  ran  to  get  it  for  us  ;  and  inquired  if  we  did  not 
want  something  to  eat.  I  told  her  that  we  were  half  dead 
with  hunger ;  and  she  no  sooner  heard  it,  than  she  hastened 
away,  and  soon  returned  with  a  large  cake  of  bread. 

Our  arms  were  bound  so  tight  that  we  were  utterly  help- 
loss,  and  the  little  girl  broke  the  bread,  and  fed  us  with  her 
own  hand. 

Is  not  this  one  instance  enough  to  prove  that  nature  never 
intended  man  to  be  a  tyrant  ?  Avarice,  a  blind  lust  of  dom- 


ARCHY    MOORE.  95 

ination,  the  false  but  specious  suggestions  of  ignorance  and 
passion  combine  to  make  him  so  ;  and  pity  at  length,  is 
banished  from  his  soul.  It  then  seeks  refuge  in  the  woman's 
heart;  and  when  the  progress  of  oppression  drives  it  even 
dience,  as  sad  and  hesitating,  it  prepares  to  wing  its  way  to 
heaven,  still  it  lurks  and  lingers  in  the  bosom  of  the  child ! 

By  listening  closely  to  the  conversation  of  the  travellers, 
— for  by  this  time  the  landlady  had  produced  a  jug  of 
whiskey,  and  they  had  become  very  communicative, — we 
learned  that  we  were  within  a  few  miles  of  the  town  of 
Camden,  and  on  the  great  northern  road  leading  from  that 
town  into  North  Carolina.  Our  captors  it  seemed,  were 
from  the  upper-country.  They  had  not  passed  through 
Camden,  but  had  struck  into  this  road  very  near  the  place 
where  they  met  us.  They  were  travelling  into  Virginia  to 
purchase  slaves. 

After  discussing  the  question  at  considerable  length,  they 
concluded  to  delay  their  journey  for  a  day  or  two,  and  to 
take  us  to  Camden,  in  hopes  to  find  our  owner  and  obtain 
a  reward  for  apprehending  us  ;  or  if  nobody  should  claim 
ns  immediately,  they  could  lodge  us  in  jail,  advertise  us  in 
the  newspapers,  and  give  further  attention  to  the  business 
upon  their  return. 

By  this  time,  the  whiskey  jug  was  emptied,  and  the 
travellers  made  preparations  for  sleeping.  There  were  but 
two  rooms  in  the  house.  .  The  landlady  and  her  daughter 
had  one  ;  and  some  beds  were  prepared  for  the  guests,  in 
the  other.  We  were  carried  into  their  room  ;  and  after 
Bgain  lamenting  that  the  landlady  could  not  furnish  them 
with  chains,  they  carefully  examined  and  retightened  the 
ropes  with  which  we  were  bound,  and  then  undressed  and 
threw  themselves  upon  their  beds.  They  were  probably 
fatigued  with  their  journey,  and  the  whiskey  increased  their 
drowsy  inclination  ;  so  that  before  long,  they  all  gave  evi 
dent  tokens  of  being  in  a  sound  slumber. 

I  envied  them  that  happiness ;  for  the  tightness  of  my 
bonds,  and  the  uneasy  position  in  which  I  wras  obliged  to 
He,  prevented  me  from  sleeping.  The  moonbeams  shone 
in  at  the  window,  and  made  every  object  distinctly  visible. 
Thomas  and  myself  were  lamenting  in  whispers,  our  wretch- 


96  MEMOIRS    OP 

ed  condition,  and  consulting  hopelessly  together,  when  we 
saw  the  door  of  the  room  cautiously  and  silently  opening. 
In  a  moment,  the  landlady's  little  daughter  made  her  ap 
pearance.  She  came  towards  us  with  noiseless  steps,  and 
one  hand  raised,  as  if  motioning  to  us  to  be  silent.  In  the 
other,  she  held  a  knife  ;  and  stooping  down  she  hastily  cut 
the  cords  by  which  we  were  bound. 

We  did  not  dare  to  speak ;  but  our  hearts  beat  hard,  and 
I  am  sure  our  looks  expressed  the  gratitude  we  felt.  We 
gained  our  feet  with  as  little  noise  as  possible,  and  were 
stealing  towards  the  door,  when  a  new  thought  struck  Thom 
as.  He  laid  his  hand  upon  my  shoulder  to  draw  my  atten 
tion,  and  then  began  to  pick  up  the  coat,  shoes,  and  other 
clothes  of  one  of  our  captors.  At  once  I  understood  his 
intention,  and  imitated  his  example.  The  little  girl  seemed 
astonished  and  displeased  at  this  proceeding,  and  motioned 
to  us  to  desist.  But  without  seeming  to  understand  her 
gestures,  we  gained  the  door  with  the  clothes  in  our  hands  ; 
und  passing  out  of  the  passage,  we  walked  slowly  and 
cautiously  for  some  distance,  taking  good  heed,  lest  the 
sound  of  our  footsteps  might  give  an  alarm.  In  the  mean 
time,  the  little  girl  patted  the  house  dog  on  the  head,  and 
kept  him  quiet.  When  we  had  gained  a  sufficient  distance, 
we  started  upon  a  run,  which  we  did  not  give  over  till  we 
were  fairly  out  of  breath. 

As  soon  as  we  had  recovered  ourselves  a  little,  we 
stripped  off  our  ragged  dresses,  and  hid  them  in  the  bushes. 
Luckily  the  clothes  which  we  had  brought  oft"  in  our  flight, 
fitted  us  very  tolerably,  and  gave  us  a  much  more  respecta 
ble,  and  less  suspicious  appearance.  We  now  went  on  for 
two  or  three  miles,  till  we  came  to  a  road  that  crossed  the 
one  upon  which  we  were  travelling,  and  ran  off  towards 
the  south. 

In  all  this  time,  Thomas  had  said  nothing ;  nor  did  he 
scarcely  seem  to  notice  my  remarks,  or  to  hear  the  ques 
tions,  which,  from  time  to  time,  I  put  to  him.  When  we 
came  to  the  cross-road,  he  suddenly  stopped,  and  took  me 
oy  the  arm.  I  supposed  that  he  was  going  to  consult  with 
me,  as  to  the  course  which  we  should  take ;  and  great  was 
my  surprise  to  hear  him  say,  "  Archy,  here  I  leave  you." 


ARCHY    MOORE.  97 

I  could  not  imagine  what  he  intended,  and  I  looked  at 
him  for  an  explanation. 

"You  are  now,"  he  said,  "on  the  road  to  the  north. 
You  have  good  clothes,  and  as  much  learning  as  an  over 
seer.  You  can  readily  pass  for  a  freeman.  It  will  be 
very  easy  for  you  to  get  away  to  those  free  States  of  which 
I  have  heard  you  speak  so  often.  If  I  go  with  you,  we 
shall  both  be  stopped  and  questioned.  We  shall  be  pur 
sued  ;  and  if  we  keep  together,  and  follow  this  road,  we 
shall  certainly  be  taken.  It  is  a  great  way  to  the  free 
States,  and  I  have  little  chance  and  no  hope  of  ever  getting 
there;  and  if  I  did,  what  should  I  gain  by  it?  I  will  try 
the  woods  again,  and  do  as  I  can.  I  shall  be  able  to  get 
back  to  our  old  place; — but  you,  Archy,  you  can  do  better. 
You  are  sure  of  getting  away  to  the  north.  Go,  my  boy, 
go,  and  God  bless  you." 

I  was  deeply  moved  ;  and  it  was  some  time  before  I  was 
able  to  reply.  The  thoughts  of  escaping  from  my  present 
situation  of  danger  and  misery,  to  a  land  where  I  could 
bear  the  name,  and  enjoy  the  rights  of  a  freeman,  flashed 
upon  my  mind  with  a  radiant  and  dazzling  brightness  that 
seemed  almost  to  blot  out  every  other  feeling.  Yet  still  my 
love  for  Thomas,  and  the  gratitude  I  owed  him,  glimmered 
through  these  new  hopes ;  and  a  low  voice  from  the  very 
centre  of  my  heart,  bade  me  not  to  desert  my  friend.  After 
too  long  a  pause,  and  too  much  hesitation,  I  began  to 
answer  him.  I  spoke  of  his  wounds  ;  of  our  sworn  friend 
ship  ;  and  of  the  risk  he  had  so  lately  run  in  my  behalf; 
and  insisted  that  I  would  stay  with  him  to  the  last. 

I  spoke,  I  fear,  with  too  little  of  zeal  and  earnestness. 
At  least,  all  that  I  said,  only  seemed  to  confirm  Thomas  in 
his  determination.  He  replied  that  his  wounds  were  heal 
ing  ;  and  that  he  was  already  almost  as  strong  as  ever.  He 
added,  that  if  I  stayed  with  him,  I  might  do  myself  much 
harm  without  the  chance  of  doing  him  any  good.  He 
pointed  along  the  road,  and  in  an  energetic  and  com 
manding  voice,  he  bade  me  follow  it,  while  he  should  take 
the  cross-road  towards  the  south. 

When  Thomas  had  once  made  up  his  mind,  there  was  a 
firmness  in  the  tone  with  which  he  spoke,  sufficient  often  to 

VOL.  IT.          y 


98  MEMOIRS    OF 

overawe  the  most  unwilling.  At  the  present  moment,  I 
was  but  too  ready  to  be  prevailed  upon.  He  saw  his  ad 
vantage  and  pursued  it.  "Go,  Archy,"  he  repeated,  "go; 
— if  not  for  your  own  sake,  go  for  mine  !  If  you  stay  with 
me,  and  are  taken,  I  shall  never  forgive  you  for  it." 

Little  by  little,  my  better  feelings  yielded ;  and  at  last  I 
consented  to  the  separation.  I  took  Thomas  by  the  hand, 
and  pressed  him  to  my  heart.  A  nobler  spirit  never 
breathed ; — I  was  not  worthy  to  call  myself  his  friend. 

"  God  bless  you,  Archy,"  he  said,  as  he  left  me.  I 
stood  watching  him  as  he  wralked  rapidly  away ;  and  as  I 
looked,  I  was  ready  to  sink  into  the  earth  with  shame  and 
mortification.  Once  or  twice,  I  was  just  starting  to  follow 
him ;  but  selfish  prudence  prevailed,  and  I  held  back.  1 
watched  him  till  he  was  out  of  sight,  and  then  resumed  my 
journey.  It  was  a  base  desertion,  which  not  even  the  love  of 
liberty  could  excuse. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

I  WALKEB  on  as  fast  as  I  was  able,  till  after  daylight, 
without  meeting  a  single  individual,  or  passing  more  than 
two  or  three  mean  and  lonely  houses.  Just  as  the  sun  was 
rising,  I  gained  the  top  of  a  considerable  hill.  Here  there 
was  a  small  house  by  the  road  side  ;  and  a  horse  saddled 
and  bridled  was  tied  to  a  tree  near  by.  The  animal  was 
sleek,  and  in  good  condition  :  and  from  the  cut  of  the 
saddle-bags  I  took  him  to  belong  to  some  doctor,  who  had 
come  thus  early  to  visit  a  patient.  It  was  a  tempting 
opportunity.  I  looked  cautiously  this  way  and  that,  and 
seeing  nobody,  I  unfastened  the  horse,  and  jumped  into  the 
saddle.  I  walked  him  a  little  distance,  but  presently  put 
him  into  a  gallop,  that  soon  carried  me  out  of  sight  of  the 
house. 

This  was  a  very  lucky  acquisition ;  for  as  I  was  upon 
the  same  road,  which  the  travellers  from  whom  I  had 
escaped  would  follow,  as  soon  as  they  resumed  their 
journey,  I  was  in  manifest  danger  of  being  overtaken  and 


ARCHY    MOORE.  99 

recognized.  As  I  found  that  my  horse  had  both  spirit  and 
bottom,  I  put  him  to  his  speed,  and  went  forward  at  a  rapid 
rate.  My  good  luck  did  not  end  here ;  for  happening  to 
put  my  hand  into  the  pocket  of  my  new  coat,  I  drew  out  a 
pocket-book,  which  beside  a  parcel  of  musty  papers,  I 
found  on  examining  it  a  little,  to  contain  quite  a  pretty  sum 
of  money  in  bank  notes.  This  discovery  gave  a  new  im 
pulse  to  my  spirits,  which  were  high  enough  before ;  and  I 
pushed  on  all  day  without  stopping,  except  now  and  then  to 
rest  my  horse  in  the  shade  of  a  tree. 

Towards  evening  I  got  a  supper,  and  corn  for  my  horse, 
at  a  little  hedge  tavern  ;  and  waiting  till  the  moon  rose,  I 
set  out  again.  By  morning,  my  horse  was  completely 
broken  down,  and  gave  out  entirely.  Thankful  for  his 
services  thus  far, — for  according  to  my  reckoning  he  had 
carried  me  upwards  of  a  hundred  miles  in  the  twenty-four 
hours, — I  stripped  off  his  saddle  and  bridle,  and  turned  him 
into  a  \\  heat-field  to  refresh  himself.  I  now  pursued  my  jour 
ney  on  foot ;  for  I  feared  if  I  kept  the  horse,  the  possession 
of  him  might  perhaps  get  me  into  difficulty  ;  and  in  fact,  he 
was  so  jaded  and  worn  out,  that  he  would  be  of  very  little 
use  to  me.  I  had  got  a  good  start  upon  the  travellers,  and 
I  did  not  doubt  that  I  could  get  on  as  fast  upon  foot,  as  they 
would  on  horseback. 

Before  sunset,  I  arrived  at  a  considerable  village.  Here  I 
Indulged  myself  in  a  hearty  meal,  and  a  good  night's  sleep. 
Both  were  needed ;  for  what  with  watching,  fasting,  and 
fatigue,  I  was  quite  worn  out.  I  slept  some  ten  hours,  and 
awoke  with  new  vigor.  I  now  resumed  my  journey  which 
I  pursued  without  much  fear  of  interruption ;  though  I 
judged  it  prudent  to  stop  but  seldom,  and  to  push  forward  as 
rapidly  as  possible.  I  kept  on  through-rNorth  Carolina  and 
Virginia ;  crossed  the  Potomac  into  Maryland  ;  and  avoid 
ing  Baltimore,  I  passed  on  into  Pennsylvania,  and  congratu 
lated  myself  that  at  last  I  trod  a  soil,  cultivated  by  freemen. 

I  had  gone  but  a  very  few  miles,  before  I  perceived  the 
difference.  In  fact,  I  had  scarcely  passed  the  slave-holding 
border,  before  the  change  became  apparent.  The  spring 
was  just  opening,  and  every  thing  was  beginning  to  look 
fresh,  green,  and  beautiful.  The  nicely  cultivated  fields, 


100  MEMOIRS    OF 

the  numerous  small  enclosures,  the  neat  and  substantia. 
farm-houses,  thickly  scattered  along  the  way,  the  pretty  vil 
lages,  and  busy  towns,  the  very  roads  themselves,  which 
•  were  covered  with  wagons  and  travellers, — all  these  signs 
qfjmiversal_  thr'ulrfnd  comfort,  gave  abundant 'evidenceTtKat 
at  length  I  saw  a  country  where  labor  was  honorable]  and 
where  every  one  labored  for  himself.  It  was  an  exhila 
rating  and  delightful  prospect,  and  in  strong  contrast  with 
all  I  had  seen  in  the  former  part  of  my  journey,  in  which 
a  wretched  and  lonely  road  had  led  me  on  through  a  vast 
monotonous  extent  of  unprofitable  woods,  deserted  fields 
grown  over  with  broomsedge  and  mullen,  or  fields  just  ready 
to  be  deserted,  gullied,  barren  and  with  all  the  evidences 
upon  them,  of  a  negligent,  unwilling,  and  unthrifty  cultiva 
tion.  Here  and  there,  I  had  passed  a  mean  and  comfort 
less  house ;  and  once  in  fifty  miles,  a  decaying,  poverty- 
stricken  village,  with  a  court  house,  and  a  store  or  two,  and 
a  great  crowd  of  idlers  collected  about  a  tavern  door ;  but 
without  one  single  sign  of  industry  or  improvement. 

I  was  desirous  of  seeing  Philadelphia  ;  but  that  city,  so 
near  the  slave-holding  border,  I  feared  might  be  infected 
with  something  of  the  slave-holding  spirit ;  for  the  worst 
plagues  are  the  most  apt  to  be  contagious.  I  passed  by, 
without  passing  through  it,  and  hastened  on  to  New  York. 
I  crossed  the  noble  Hudson,  and  entered  the  town.  It  was 
the  first  city  I  had  ever  seen  ;  at  least,  the  first  one  worthy 
to  be  called  a  city  ;  and  when  I  beheld  the  spacious  harbor 
crowded  with  shipping ;  the  long  lines  of  warehouses,  the 
numerous  streets,  the  splendid  shops,  and  the  swarming 
crowds  of  busy  people,  I  was  astonished  and  delighted  with 
the  new  idea  which  all  this  gave  me  of  the  resources  of 
human  art  and  industry.  I  had  heard  of  such  things  before, 
but  to  feel,  one  ought  to  see. 

I  did  nothing  for  several  days,  but  to  wander  up  and 
down  the  streets,  looking,  gazing,  and  examining  with  an 
almost  insatiable  curiosity.  New  York  then,  was  far  infe 
rior,  to  what  it  must  by  this  time,  have  become ;  and  the 
commercial  restrictions  which  then  prevailed  must  have 
tended  to  diminish  its  business  and  its  bustle.  Yet  to  my 
rustic  inexperience,  the  city  seemed  almost  interminable; 


ARCHY   MOORE.  101 

and  the  rattling  of  the  drays  and  carriages  over  the  pave 
ments,  and  the  crowds  of  people  in  the  streets,  far  ex 
ceeded  all  my  previous  notions  of  the  busy  confusion  of 
a  city. 

I  had  now  been  in  New  York  about  a  week,  and  was 
standing  one  forenoon  by  a  triangular  grass-plot,  near  the 
centre  of  the  town,  gazing  at  a  fine  building  of  white  mar 
ble,  which  one  of  the  passers-by  told  me  was  the  City  Hall, 
when  suddenly  I  felt  my  arm  rudely  seized.  I  looked 
round,  and  with  horror  and  dismay,  I  found  myself  in  the 
gripe  of  general  Carter, — the  man  who  in  South  Carolina 
had  called  himself  my  master ;  but  who,  in  a  country  that 
prided  itself  in  the  title  of  a  -'free  State,'  ought  no  longer  to 
have  had  any  claim  upon  me. 

Let  no  one  be  deceived  by  the  false  and  boastful  title 
which  the  northern  States  of  the  American  Union  have 
thought  fit  to  assume.  With  what  justice  can  they  pre-  ^ 
tend  to  call  themselves  free  States,  after  having  made  a 
bargain  with  the  slave-holders,  by  which  they  are  bound 
to  deliver  back  again,  into  the  hands  of  their  oppress 
ors,  every  miserable  fugitive  who  takes  refuge  within  their 
territory  ?  The  good  people  of  the  free  States  have  no 
slaves  themselves.  Oh  no !  Slave-holding  they  confess, 
is  a  horrible  enormity.  They  hold  no  slaves  themselves ; 
they  only  act  as  bumbailifFs  and  tipstaves  to  the  slave 
holders  ! 

My  master, — for  so  even  in  the  free  city  of  New  York  1 
must  continue  to  call  him, — had  seized  me  by  one  ami,  and 
a  friend  of  his  held  me  by  the  other.  He  called  me  by 
name  ;  and  in  the  hurry  and  confusion  of  this  sudden  sur 
prise,  I  forgot  for  a  moment,  how  impolitic  it  was  for  me  to 
appear  to  know  him.  A  crowd  began  to  collect  about  us. 
When  they  heard  that  I  was  seized  as  a  fugitive  slave, 
some  of  them  appeared  not  a  little  outraged  at  the  idea  that 
a  white  man  should  be  subject  to  such  an  indignity.  They 
seemed  to  think  that  it  was  only  the  black,  whom  it  was 
lawful  to  kidnap  in  that  way.  Such  indeed  is  the  untiring 
artfulness  of  tyranny  that  it  is  ever  nestling  even  in  the 
bosoms  of  the  free ;  and  there  is  not  one  prejudice,  the 
offspring  as  all  prejudices  are,  of  ignorance  and  self- 


102  MEMOIRS    OP 

conceit,  of  which  it  has  not  well  learned  how  to  avail 
itself. 

Though  several  of  the  crowd  did  not  scruple  to  use  very 
strong  expressions,  they  made  no  attempt  to  rescue  me;  and 
I  was  dragged  along  towards  that  very  City  Hall  which  I 
had  just  been  admiring.  I  was  carried  before  the  sitting 
magistrate  ;  some  questions  were  put  and  answered  ;  some 
oaths  were  sworn,  and  papers  written.  I  had  not  yet  re 
covered  from  the  first  confusion  of  my  seizure  ;  and  this 
array  of  courts  and  constables  was  a  horrid  sort  of  danger 
to  which  I  was  totally  unaccustomed,  so  that  I  scarcely 
know  what  wras  said  or  done.  But  to  the  best  of  my  rec 
ollection,  the  magistrate  declined  acting  on  the  question  ; 
though  he  consented  to  grant  a  warrant  for  detaining  me  in 
prison,  till  I  could  be  taken  before  some  other  tribunal. 

The  wrarrant  was  made  out,  and  I  was  delivered  over  to 
an  officer.  The  court-room  was  filled  with  the  crowd,  who 
had  followed  us  from  the  street.  They  collected  close 
about  us,  as  we  left  the  court-room ;  and  I  could  see  by 
the  expression  of  their  faces,  and  the  words  which  some  of 
them  dropped,  that  they  were  veiy  well  inclined  to  favor 
my  escape.  At  first,  I  seemed  all  submission  to  the  officer  ; 
— we  had  gone  however  but  a  very  few  steps,  when  with 
a  sudden  spring  I  tore  myself  from  his  grasp,  and  darted 
among  the  crowrd,  which  opened  to  give  me  a  passage.  1 
heard  noise,  confusion,  and  shouts  behind  me  ;  but  in  a 
moment,  I  had  cleared  the  enclosure  in  which  the  City 
Hall  stood,  and  crossing  one  of  the  streets  by  which  it  was 
bounded,  I  dashed  down  a  narrow  and  crooked  lane.  The 
people  stared  at  me  as  1  ran,  and  some  shouted,  "  Stop 
thief!"  One  or  two  seemed  half  inclined  to  seize  me;  but 
I  turned  one  short  corner,  and  then  another,  and  finding  that 
I  was  not  pursued,  I  soon  dropped  into  a  walk. 

For  this  escape  I  return  my  thanks,  not  to  the  laws  of 
New  York,  but  to  the  good  will  of  her  citizens.  The 
secret  bias  and  selfish  interest  of  the  law-makers,  often  leads 
them  wrong  ;  the  unprompted  and  disinterested  impulses  of 
the  people,  are  almost  always  right.  It  is  true  that  the 
artful  practice  and  cunning  instigation  of  the  purchased 
friends  and  bribed  advocates  of  oppression,  joined  to  the 


ARCHY   MOORE.  103 

interest  which  the  thieves  and  pick-pockets  of  a  great  city 
always  have  in  civil  tumult  and  confusion,  may  now 
and  then  succeed  in  exciting  the  young,  the  ignorant,  the 
thoughtless,  and  the  depraved,  to  acts  of  violence  in  favor 
of  tyranny.  But  so  congenial  to  the  human  heart  is  the 
love  of  freedom,  that  it  burns  not  brighter  in  the  souls  of 
sages  and  of  heroes,  than  in  the  bosoms  even  of  the  most 
ignorant  and  thoughtless,  when  not  quenched  by  some  ex 
cited  prejudice,  base  passion,  or  sinister  influence. 

In  my  previous  wanderings  about  the  town,  I  had  dis 
covered  the  road  that  led  northwardly  out  of  it;  and  I  soon 
turned  in  that  direction,  determined  to  shake  off  from  my 
feet,  the  very  dust  of  a  city,  where  I  had  been  so  near  fall 
ing  back  again  into  the  wretched  condition  of  servitude. 

I  travelled  all  that  day, — and  at  night,  the  inn-keeper,  at 
whose  house  I  lodged,  told  me  that  I  was  in  the  state  of 
Connecticut.  I  now  pursued  my  flight  for  several  days, 
through  a  fine  hilly  and  mountainous  country,  such  as  I  had 
never  seen  before.  The  nobleness  of  the  prospect,  the 
craggy  rocks,  and  rugged  hills,  contrasted  finely  with  the 
excellent  cultivation  of  the  valleys,  and  the  universal  thrift 
and  industry  of  the  inhabitants.  Where  freedom  nerves 
the  arm,  it  is  in  vain  that  rocks  and  hills  of  granite,  oppose 
the  labors  of  the  cultivator.  Industrious  liberty  teaches  him 
the  art  to  extract  comfort,  competence,  and  wealth  from  a 
soil  the  most  unwilling  and  ungrateful. 

I  knew  that  Boston  was  the  great  sea-port  of  New  Eng 
land  ;  and  thither  I  directed  my  steps,  resolved  to  leave  a 
land  however  otherwise  inviting,  whose  laws  would  not 
acknowledge  me  a  freeman.  As  I  approached  the  town, 
the  country  lost  much  of  its  picturesque  and  hilly  grandeur ; 
but  this  was  made  up  for  by  tha  greater  beauty  of  its 
smoother  and  better  cultivated  fields  ;  and  by  the  pretty 
dwellings  scattered  so  numerously  along  the  road,  that  the 
environs  of  the  town  seemed  almost  a  continued  village. 
The  city  itself,  seated  on  hills,  and  seen  for  a  considerable 
distance,  gave  a  noble  termination  to  the  prospect. 

I  crossed  a  broad  river,  by  a  long  bridge,  and  soon  en 
tered  the  town  ;  but  I  did  not  stop  to  examine  it.  Liberty 
was  too  precious  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  gratification  of  an 


104  MEMOIRS    OF 

idle  curiosity ;  a  New  York  mob  had  set  me  free  ;  a .  Bos 
ton  mob  might  perhaps  delight  in  the  opportunity  of  restoring 
me  to  servitude.  I  found  my  way,  as  soon  as  the  crooked 
and  irregular  streets  would  allow  me,  to  the  wharves. — 
Many  of  the  ships  were  stripped  and  rotting  in  the  docks  ; 
but  after  some  search  and  inquiry,  I  found  a  vessel  about  to 
sail  for  Bordeaux.  I  offered  myself  as  a  sailor.  The  cap 
tain  questioned  me,  and  laughed  heartily  at  my  land-lubberly 
air,  and  rustic  ignorance  ;  but  finally  he  agreed  to  take  me 
at  half  wages.  He  advanced  me  a  month's  pay  ;  and  the 
second  mate  who  was  a  fine  young  fellow,  and  who  seemed 
to  feel  for  my  lonely  and  helpless  ignorance,  assisted  me  in 
buying  such  clothes  as  would  be  necessary  for  the  voyage. 

In  a  few  days,  our  cargo  was  completed,  and  the  ship 
was  ready  for  sea.  We  dropped  off  from  the  wharf; 
threaded  our  course  among  the  numerous  islets  and  head 
lands  of  Boston  harbor ;  passed  the  castle  and  the  light 
house  ;  sent  off  our  pilot ;  and  with  all  sail  set,  and  a 
smacking  breeze,  we  left  the  town  behind. 

As  I  stood  upon  the  forecastle,  and  looked  towards  the 
land,  which  soon  seemed  but  a  little  streak  in  the  horizon, 
and  was  fast  sinking  from  our  sight,  I  seemed  to  feel  a 
heavy  weight  drop  off  me.  The  chains  were  gone.  I  felt 
myself  a  freeman ;  and  as  I  watched  the  fast  receding  shore, 
my  bosom  heaved  with  a  proud  scorn, — a  mingled  feeling 
of  safety  and  disdain. 

"  Farewell,  my  country  !" — such  were  the  thoughts  that 
rose  upon  my  mind,  and  pressed  to  find  an  utterance  from 
my  lips  ; — "  And  such  a  country  !  A  land  boasting  to  be 
the  chosen  seat  of  liberty  and  equal  rights,  yet  holding  such 
a  portion  of  her  people  in  hopeless,  helpless,  miserable 
bondage ! " 

"  Farewell,  my  country !  Much  is  the  gratitude  anti 
thanks  I  owe  thee  !  Land  of  the  tyrant  and  the  slave 
Farewell!" 

"  And  welcome,  welcome,  ye  bounding  billows  and 
foamy  surges  of  the  ocean  !  Ye  are  the  emblems  and  the 
children  of  liberty — I  hail  ye  as  my  brothers  ! — for,  at  last, 
I  too  am  free  ! — free  ! — free  !  " 


ARCHY   MOORE.  105 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE  favorable  breezes,  with  which  we  had  set  out,  did 
not  last  long.  The  weather  soon  became  tempestuous,  and 
we  were  involved  in  fogs,  and  driven  about  by  contrary 
winds.  Our  labors  and  hardships  were  very  great  ;  but 
still  I  found  a  sort  of  pleasure  in  them.  Tt  was  for  myself 
that  I  toiled  and  suffered  ;  and  that  thought  gave  me 
strength  and  vigor. 

I  applied  myself  with  the  greatest  zeal  and  good-will  to 
learn  the  business  of  my  profession.  At  first,  my  compan 
ions  laughed  at  my  ignorance  and  awkwardness,  and  were 
full  of  their  jokes  and  tricks  upon  me.  But  though  rude 
and  thoughtless,  they  were  generous  and  good-natured.  In 
the  very  first  week  of  our  voyage,  I  had  a  fair  fight  with 
the  bully  of  the  ship.  I  whipped  him  soundly ;  and  the 
crew  all  agreed,  that  there  was  something  in  me. 

I  was  strong  and  active;  and  as  I  made  it  a  point  to 
imitate  whatever  I  saw  done  by  any  of  the  crew,  I  was 
surprised  to  find  in  how  short  a  time  I  was  able  to  run  over 
the  rigging,  and  venture  upon  the  yards.  The  maze  of 
ropes  and  sea-terms  that  at  first  perplexed  me,  soon  grew 
clear.  Before  we  were  across  the  ocean,  I  could  hand, 
reef,  and  steer  with  any  man  on  board;  and  the  crew  swore 
with  one  consent,  that  I  was  born  to  be  a  sailor. 

But  I  was  not  satisfied  with  setting  sails  and  handling 
ropes.  I  washed  to  understand  the  art  of  navigation.  One 
of  our  crew  was  a  young  man  of  good  education,  who  served 
before  the  mast,  as  is  common  with  New  Englanders,  in 
expectation  of  presently  commanding  a  ship  himself.  He 
had  his  books  and  his  instruments ;  and  as  he  had  already 
been  one  or  two  voyages,  he  understood  pretty  well,  how 
to  apply  them,  and  used  to  keep  a  reckoning  of  the  ship's 
course.  This  same  young  sailor,  Tom  Turner  by  name, 
was  a  fine,  free-hearted  fellow  as  ever  lived ;  but  he  was  of 
a  slight  make,  and  his  strength  was  not  equal  to  his  spirit.  I 
had  gained  his  good-will  by  standing  by  him  in  some  of  our 
forecastle  frolics ;  and  seeing  how  anxious  I  was  to  learn, 


106  MEMOIRS    OF 

he  undertook  to  be  my  instructor.  He  put  bis  Navigator 
into  my  band,  and  whenever  it  was  my  watch  below,  I  was 
constantly  poring  over  it.  At  first,  the  whole  matter  seemed 
mighty  mysterious.  It  was  some  time  before  1  could  see 
into  it.  But  Tom,  who  had  a  fluent  tongue,  lectured  and 
explained ;  and  I  listened  and  studied  ;  and  presently  T 
began  to  understand  it. 

All  this  time,  we  were  beating  about  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  banks  of  Newfoundland ;  and  as  we  experienced  a 
constant  succession  of  storms  and  contrary  winds,  we  made 
but  little  progress.  We  lost  a  couple  of  top-sails  and  sev 
eral  of  our  spars  ;  and  had  been  out  some  seventy  days  in 
very  rough  weather. 

I  took  it  all  kindly  though ;  I  was  in  no  hurry  to  get 
ashore.  I  had  chosen  the  ocean  for  my  country  ;  and 
when  the  winds  roared,  the  rigging  rattled,  and  the  timbers 
creaked,  I  only  wrapped  my  monkey-jacket  a  little  closer, 
braced  myself  against  my  sea-chest,  and  studied  my  Nav 
igator  ; — that  is,  if  it  happened  to  be  my  watch  below ; 
for  when  upon  deck,  I  was  always  ready  at  the  first  call, 
and  was  the  first  to  spring  into  the  rigging. 

At  last,  the  weather  moderated,  and  we  made  sail  for  the 
coast  of  France.  We  had  made  the  land,  and  were  within 
a  few  leagues  of  our  harbor,  when  an  armed  brig,  with  the 
British  colors  flying,- bore  down  upon  us,  fired  a  shot  a-head. 
and  sent  a  boat's  crew  on  board. 

In  those  days,  American  vessels  were  quite  accustomed 
to  such  sort  of  visitations  ;  and  our  captain  did  not  seem  to 
be  much  alarmed.  But  no  sooner  had  the  boat's  officer 
reached  our  deck,  than  laying  his  hand  upon  his  sword,  he 
told  the  captain  that  he  was  a  prisoner. 

It  seemed  that  while  we  were  beating  about  on  the  Grand 
Bank,  America,  at  last,  had  screwed  up  her  courage,  and 
had  declared  war  against  England.  The  armed  brig  was  a 
British  privateer,  and  we  were  her  prize.  At  first  we  were 
all  ordered  below ;  but  presently  we  were  called  up  again, 
and  offered  the  choice  of  enlisting  on  board  the  privateer, 
or  being  carried  prisoners  into  England.  Near  half  our 
crew  were  what  the  sailors  call  Dutchmen,  that  is,  people 
from  the  North  Sea,  or  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic.  These 


ARCHY    MOORE.  107 

adventurers  readily  enlisted.  Tom  Turner  was  spokesman 
for  the  Americans  ;  and  when  called  upon  to  follow  this 
example,  he  answered  the  lieutenant,  in  a  tone  so  gruff  as 
to  be  little  better  than  a  growl, — "  We'll  see  you  damned 
first!" 

For  myself,  I  felt  no  patriotic  scruples.  I  had  renounced 
my  country  ;  if  indeed  that  place  can  be  fitly  called  one's 
country,  which  while  it  gives  him  birth,  cuts  him  off,  by  its 
wicked  and  unjust  laws,  from  every  thing  that  makes  life 
worth  having.  Despite  the  murmurs  and  hisses  of  my 
companions,  I  stepped  forward,  and  put  my  name  to  the 
shipping  paper.  Had  they  known  my  history,  they  would 
not  have  blamed  me. 

After  cruising  for  some  time,  without  success,  we  returned 
to  Liverpool  to  refit.  Our  crew  was  recruited  ;  and  we 
soon  put  to  sea  again.  Cruising  off  the  coast  of  France, 
we  took  several  prizes,  but  none  of  very  great  value.  We 
now  made  sail  for  the  West  Indies  ;  and,  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  Bermudas,  while  close  hauled  to  the  wind  and 
under  easy  sail,  we  discovered  a  vessel  a-head,  and  gave 
chase. 

The  chase  slackened  sail  and  waited  for  us  to  come  up. 
This  made  us  suppose  that  it  might  be  a  man-of-war ;  and 
as  we  were  more  anxious  for  plunder  than  for  fighting,  we 
put  up  the  helm,  and  bore  away. 

The  chase  now  made  sail  in  pursuit ;  and  as  she  proved 
to  be  much  the  better  sailer,  she  gained  rapidly  upon  us. 

When  we  saw  that  there  was  no  chance  of  escaping,  we 
took  in  our  light  canvass,  brought  the  vessel  to,  ran  up  the 
British  flag,  and  cleared  for  action. 

The  enemy  was  an  armed  and  fast-sailing  schooner — an 
American  privateer,  as  it  proved,  about  a  fair  match  for  the 
brig,  in  point  of  size  and  armament,  but  in  much  finer  trim, 
and  most  beautifully  worked.  She  ran  down  upon  us ;  her 
crew  gave  three  cheers  ;  and  shooting  across  our  bows,  she 
gave  us  a  broad-side  that  did  much  execution.  She  tacked 
and  manoeuvred  till  she  gained  a  favorable  position,  and 
then  poured  in  her  fire  with  such  steadiness,  that  she 
seemed  all  a-blaze.  Her  guns  were  well  shotted,  and  well 
aimed,  and  did  serious  damage.  Our  captain  and  first 


108  MEMOIRS    OF 

lieutenant  were  soon  wounded  and  disabled.  We  paid 
back  the  enemy  as  well  as  we  could ;  but  our  men  dropped 
fast ;  and  our  fire  began  to  slacken.  The  schooner's  bow 
sprit  got  fast  in  our  main  rigging,  and  directly  we  heard  the 
cry  for  the  boarders.  We  seized  our  pikes,  and  prepared 
to  receive  them  ;  but  a  party  of  the  enemy  soon  got  a  foot 
ing  on  board  the  brig  ;  wounded  the  only  officer  on  deck  ; 
and  drove  our  men  frightened  and  confused  towards  the 
forecastle. 

I  saw  our  danger ;  and  the  idea  of  falling  again  into  the 
hands  of  the  tyrants  from  whom  I  had  escaped,  summoned 
back  my  ebbing  courage.  I  seemed  to  feel  a  more  than 
human  energy  spring  up  within  me.  I  put  myself  at  the 
head  of  our  yielding  and  dispirited  crew,  and  fought  with 
all  the  frantic  valor  of  a  mad  hero  of  romance.  I  struck 
down  two  or  three  of  the  foremost  of  the  enemy  ;  and  as 
they  quailed  and  shrunk  before  me,  I  cheered  and  encour 
aged  my  companions,  and  called  on  them  to  charge.  My 
example  seemed  to  inspire  them.  They  rallied  at  once, 
and  rushed  forward  with  new  courage.  They  drove  the 
enemy  before  them  ;  tumbled  some  into  the  sea  ;  and 
pressed  the  others  back  into  their  own  vessel. 

Nor  did  our  success  stop  here.  We  boarded  in  our  turn ; 
and  the  decks  of  the  schooner  saw  as  bloody  a  battle  as  had 
been  fought  on  those  of  the  brig.  The  fortune  of  the  fight 
still  ran  in  our  favor,  arid  we  soon  drove  the  enemy  to  take 
refuge  on  the  quarter-deck.  We  called  to  them  to  sur 
render; — but  their  captain  waving  his  bloody  sword,  sternly 
refused.  He  encouraged  his  men  to  charge  once  more,  and 
rushed  furiously  upon  us.  His  cutlass  clashed  against  my 
pike,  and  flew  from  his  hand.  He  slipped,  and  fell  upon 
the  deck ;  and  in  a  moment,  my  weapon  was  at  his  breast. 

He  cried  for  quarter.     I  thought  I  knew  his  face. 

"Your  name?" 

"Osborne!" 

il  Jonathan  Osborne  late  commander  of  the  Two  Sallys? " 

"The  same!" 

"Then  die,v — a  wretch  like  you  deserves  no  mercy!" 
and  as  I  spoke  I  plunged  the  weapon  to  his  heart,  and  felt 
thrilling  to  the  very  elbow-joint,  the  pleasurable  sense  of 
doing  justice  on  a  tyrant ! 


ARCHY   MOORE.  109 

But  justice  ought  never  to  be  sullied  by  passion, — and  if 
possible,  should  be  unstained  with  blood.  If  in  my  feelings 
at  that  moment,  there  was  something  noble,  there  was  far 
too  much  of  savage  fury  and  passionate  revenge.  Yet  from 
what  I  then  felt,  I  can  well  understand  the  fierce  spirit  and 
ferocious  energy  of  the  slave,  who  vindicates  his  liberty  at 
the  sword's  point,  and  who  looks  upon  the  slaughter  of  his 
oppressors  almost  as  a  debt  due  to  humanity. 

The  crew  no  sooner  saw  their  captain  slain,  than  they 
threw  down  their  arms  and  cried  for  quarter.  The  schoon 
er  was  ours,  and  a  finer  vessel  never  sailed  the  seas. 

Every  officer  on  board  the  brig  was  wounded.  All  con 
fessed  that  the  capture  of  the  prize  was,  in  a  great  measure, 
due  to  me ;  and  with  the  approbation  of  all  the  crew,  I  was 
put  on  board  as  prize-master. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

\YE  had  a  short  passage  to  Liverpool.  The  schooner 
was  condemned  as  a  prize,  and  was  bought  in  by  the  own 
ers  of  the  brig.  They  fitted  her  out  as  a  privateer ;  and 
as  they  had  been  informed  how  large  a  share  I  had  in  her 
capture,  they  offered  me  the  command  of  her.  I  readily 
accepted  it ;  and  having  selected  an  experienced  old  sailor 
for  my  first  lieutenant,  I  soon  collected  a  crew,  and  set  sail. 

The  cruising  ground  which  I  preferred,  was  the  coast  of 
America.  Off  the  harbor  of  Boston,  we  were  so  lucky  as 
to  fall  in  with,  and  make  prize  of  a  homeward  bound  East- 
Indiaman,  with  a  very  valuable  cargo  of  teas  and  silks. 
We  put  a  prize-crew  on  board  and  sent  her  off  for  Liver 
pool,  where  she  arrived  safely,  and  produced  us  a  very 
handsome  sum  in  prize-money.  We  now  stood  to  the 
southward  ;  and  for  a  month  or  two,  we  cruised  off  the 
capes  of  Virginia.  As  we  kept  well  in  to  the  coast,  we 
often  made  the  land  ;  and  I  never  saw  it  without  feeling  a 
strong  inclination  to  send  a  boat's  crew  ashore,  and  to  kid 
nap  from  their  beds,  such  of  the  nearest  planters  as  I  could 

VOL.  II.  10 


110  MEMOIRS    OF 

lay  my  hands  upon.  But  I  did  not  think  it  prudent  to 
attempt  to  carry  into  execution,  this  piece  of  experimental 
instruction,  of  which  the  Virginians  stand  so  much  in  need. 

My  cruising  adventures,  chases,  and  escapes  would  fill  a 
volume ; — but  they  are  little  to  my  present  purpose.  Suf 
fice  it  to  say,  that  while  the  war  lasted  I  kept  the  seas  ; 
and  when  it  ended,  most  reluctantly  I  left  them.  My 
share  in  the  prizes  we  had  taken,  rendered  me  wealthy, — 
at  least  what  the  moderation  of  my  wishes  made  me  esteem 
so.  But  what  was  to  supply  the  ever  varying  stimulus 
and  excitement,  which  till  now,  had  sustained  me,  and  pre 
vented  my  mind  from  preying  on  itself,  and  poisoning  my 
peace  with  bitter  recollections  ?  The  images  of  my  wife, 
my  child,  and  of  the  friend  to  whom  I  owed  so  much, 
often,  on  my  voyages,  flitted  mournfully  across  my  mind ; 
but  the  cry  of  l  Sail  ahead'  would  call  off  my  thoughts,  and 
dissipate  my  incipient  melancholy  in  the  bustle  of  action  * 
But  now  that  I  was  on  shore, homeless,  alone,  a  stranger,  with 
nothing  to  occupy  my  mind, — the  thoughts  of  those  dear 
sufferers  haunted  me  continually.  The  very  first  thing  I 
did,  was  to  look  up  a  trusty  agent  whom  I  might  send  in 
search  of  them.  Such  an  one  I  found.  I  gave  him  all  the 
information  which  might  promote  the  object  of  his  mission  ; 
I  allowed  him  an  unlimited  credit  on  my  banker ;  and  stimu 
lated  his  zeal  by  a  handsome  advance,  and  the  promise  of 
a  still  larger  reward,  if  he  succeeded  in  the  object  of  his 
mission. 

He  sailed  for  America  by  the  first  opportunity  ;  and  I 
consoled  myself  with  the  hope  that  his  search  would  be 
successful.  In  the  mean  time,  to  have  some  occupation 
that  might  keep  off  anxious  doubts  and  troublesome  anxie- 
eies,  I  applied  myself  to  study.  When  a  child,  I  had  a  fond 
ness  for  reading,  and  an  ardent  love  of  knowledge.  This 
love  of  knowledge,  the  accursed  discipline  of  servitude  had 
stifled  and  kept  under,  but  had  not  totally  extinguished.  I 
was  astonished  to  find  it  still  so  strong.  Having  once  turned 
my  attention  that  way,  my  mind  drank  in  all  sorts  of 
information,  as  the  thirsty  earth  imbibes  the  rain.  I 
might  rather  be  said  to  devour  books,  than  to  read  them. 
I  scarcely  gave  myself  time  to  sleep.  No  sooner  had  I  fin 


ARCHY   MOORE.  Hi 

ished  one,  than  I  hurried  to  another  with  restless  inquietude. 
I  read  on  without  selection  or  discrimination.  It  was  a  long 
time  before  I  learned  to  compare,  to  weigh,  and  to  judge. 
It  happened  to  me  as  it  has  happened  to  mankind  in  general. 
Tn  my  anxiety  to  know,  I  was  ready  to  take  every  thing  on 
trust ;  and  I  did  not  stop  to  distinguish  between  what  was 
fact,  and  what  was  fiction.  But  while  I  allowed  an  abun 
dance  of  folly  and  falsehood  to  be  palmed  upon  me  undei 
the  sober  disguise  of  truth,  I  had  but  little  taste  for  writers 
professedly  imaginative.  I  could  not  understand  why  they 
wrote,  or  what  they  aimed  at.  I  despised  the  poets  ;  but 
voyages,  travels,  histories  and  narratives  of  every  sort,  I 
devoured  with  undistinguishing  voracity.  Time  and  reflec 
tion  have  since  enabled  me  to  extract  something  of  truth 
and  philosophy  from  these  chaotic  acquisitions. 

For  a  while,  my  studies  had  much  the  same  stimulating 
and  exciting  effect  with  my  former  activity.  They  raised 
my  spirits,  and  enabled  me  to  bear  up  under  the  discour 
aging  advices  which  I  received  from  America.  But  they 
palled  at  last; — and  when  my  agent  returned  with  the 
disastrous  information,  that  all  his  searches  had  been  una 
vailing,  I  found  no  support  under  the  load  of  grief  that  over 
whelmed  me. 

From  such  information  as  my  agent  had  been  able  to 
obtain,  it  appeared  that  Mrs  Montgomery,  Cassy's  mistress, 
had  become  security  to  a  large  amount  for  that  brother  of 
hers,  by  whose  advice  and  agency  she  managed  her  affairs. 
That  brother  was  a  planter  ;  and  among  the  American 
planters,  the  passion  for  gambling  is  next  to  universal, — 
for  it  is  one  of  the  few  excitements  by  which  they  are  able 
to  relieve  the  listless  and  wearisome  indolence  of  their  use 
less  lives.  Mrs  Montgomery's  brother  was  a  gambler,  and 
an  unsuccessful  one.  Having  ruined  himself,  he  began  to 
prey  upon  his  sister.  Besides  embezzling  all  such  money 
of  hers  as  he  could  lay  his  hands  upon, — and  as  he  had  the 
entire  management  of  her  Affairs,  her  income  was  much  at  his 
disposal, — he  induced  her,  under  various  pretences,  to  put 
her  name  to  bonds  and  notes  to  a  large  amount.  On  these 
notes  and  bonds  suits  were  commenced  ;  but  this,  her 
brother,  who  strove  to  defer  the  disclosure  of  his  villames  as 


112  MEMOIRS    OF 

long  as  possible,  took  care  to  conceal  from  her ;  and  the 
first  thing  she  knew  of  the  matter,  her  entire  property  was 
seized  on  execution. 

Among  her  other  chattels,  my  wife  and  child  were  sold, — 
for  it  is  the  law  and  the  practice  of  America  to  sell  women 
and  children  to  pay  the  debts  of  a  gambler ! 

Cassy  and  her  infant  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  gen 
tleman, — such  is  the  American  phrase, — who  followed  the 
lucrative  and  respectable  business  of  a  slave-trader.  My 
agent  no  sooner  learned  his  name,  than  he  set  out  in  pursuit 
of  him.  But  he  found  that  the  man  had  been  dead  for  a 
year  or  two ;  and  that  he  had  left  no  papers  behind  him, 
from  which  might  be  traced  the  history  of  his  slave-trading 
expeditions.  Not  yet  discouraged,  my  agent  travelled  over 
the  entire  route,  which  he  was  told  the  deceased  slave- 
trader  had  usually  followed.  He  even  succeeded  in  getting 
some  trace  of  the  very  gang  of  slaves  which  had  been  pur 
chased  at  the  sale  of  Mi's  Montgomery's  property.  He 
tracked  them  from  village  to  village,  till  he  arrived  at  Au 
gusta  in  the  state  of  Georgia, — but  here  he  lost  sight  of 
them  altogether.  That  town  is  or  was,  one  of  the  great 
marts  of  the  American  slave-trade ;  and  here  in  all  proba 
bility,  the  slaves  were  sold ;  but  to  whom,  it  was  impossible 
to  discover. 

Thus  baffled  in  his  search,  my  agent  had  recourse  to 
advertisements  in  the  newspapers,  in  which  the  person  of 
my  wife  was  particularly  described,  mention  was  made  of 
the  name  of  her  late  owner,  and  a  very  generous  reward 
was  offered  to  any  one  who  would  give  information  w7here 
she  or  her  child  was  to  be  found.  These  advertisements 
brought  him  an  abundance  of  communications,  but  none  to 
the  purpose ;  and  after  having  spent  near  two  years  in  the 
search,  he  gave  it  up,  at  last,  as  unavailing. 

Of  Thomas  he  could  learn  nothing,  except  that  general 
Carter  had  never  retaken  him.  A  man  of  his  figure  and 
appearance  had  been  occasionally  seen,  traversing  the 
woods  of  that  neighborhood,  and  lurking  about  the  planta 
tions  ;  and  it  seemed  not  unlikely  that  he  was  still  alive, 
and  the  leader  of  some  band  of  runaways.  Such  was  the 
information  which  my  agent  brought  me. 


ARCHY    MOORE.  113 

While  he  remained  in  America,  however  little  encour 
agement  his  letters  gave,  still  I  could  hope.  But  now,  the 
last  staff  of  consolation  was  plucked  from  under  me.  What 
availed  it,  that  I  had  myself  shaken  off  the  chains,  which 
were  still  hanging,  and  perhaps  with  a  weight  so  much  the 
heavier,  to  the  friend  of  my  heart,  to  the  wife  of  my  bosom, 
to  the  dear,  dear  infant,  the  child  of  my  love  ?  The  curse 
of  tyranny  indeed  is  multifold  ; — nay,  infinite  ! — It  blasted 
me  across  the  broad  Atlantic ;  and  when  I  thought  of  Gassy 
and  my  boy,  I  shrunk  and  trembled  as  if  again  the  irons 
were  upon  me,  and  the  bloody  lash  cracking  about  my 
head ! — Almighty  God !  why  hast  thou  created  beings 
capable  of  so  much  misery ! 

I  recovered  slowly  from  the  shock,  which  at  first  had 
quite  unmanned  me.  But  though  I  regained  some  degree 
of  composure,  it  was  in  vain  that  I  courted  any  thing  like 
enjoyment.  A  worm  was  gnawing  at  my  heart  which 
would  not  be  appeased.  Never  was  there  a  bosom  more 
inclined  than  mine  to  the  gentle  pleasures  of  domestic  life. 
But  I  found  only  torture  in  the  recollection  that  I  was  a 
husband  and  a  father.  Oh,  had  my  wife  and  my  dear  boy 
been  with  me,  in  what  a  sweet  retirement  I  could  have 
spent  my  days,  ever  finding  a  new  relish  for  present  bliss  in 
the  recollection  of  ills  endured,  and  miseries  escaped ! 

The  sense  of  loneliness  which  oppressed  me,  an<J  the 
bitter  thoughts  and  hateful  images  that  were  ever  crowding 
on  my  mind,  made  my  life  an  irksome  burden,  and  drove 
me  to  seek  relief  in  the  excitements  of  travel.  I  visited 
every  country  in  Europe,  and  sought  occupation  and  amuse 
ment  in  examining  their  scheme  of  society,  and  studying 
their  laws  and  manners.  I  traversed  Turkey  and  the 
regions  of  the  East,  once  the  seats  of  art  and  opulence,  but 
long  since  ruined  by  the  heavy  hand  of  tyranny,  and  the 
ever  renewed  extortions  of  military  pillage.  I  crossed  the  • 
Persian  deserts,  and  saw  in  India  a  new  and  better  civiliza 
tion  slowly  rising  upon  the  ruins  of  the  old. 

The  interest  I  felt  in  the  oppressed  and  unfortunate  race, 
with  which,  upon  the  mother's  side  I  am  connected,  carried 
me  again  across  the  ocean.  I  have  climbed  the  lofty  crests  of 
the  Andes,  and  wandered  among  the  flowery  forests  of  Brazil 
10* 


114  MEMOIRS    OF 

Every  where  I  have  seen  the  hateful  empire  of  aristo 
cratic  usurpation,  lording  it  with  a  high  hand,  over  the  lives, 
the  liberty,  and  the  happiness  of  men.  But  every  where, 
or  almost  every  where,  1  have  seen  the  bondsmen  beginninc 
io  forget  the  base  lore  of  traditionary  subserviency,  and 
already  feeling  the  impulses,  and  lisping  in  the  language  of 
freedom.  I  have  seen  it  every  where ; — every  where,  ex 
cept  in  my  native  America. 

There  are  slaves  in  many  other  countries ;  but  no  where 
else  is  oppression  so  heartless  and  unrelenting.  No  where 
else,  has  tyranny  ever  assumed  a  shape  so  fiendish.  No 
where  else  is  it,  of  all  the  world  beside,  the  open  aim  of 
the  laws,  and  the  professed  purpose  of  the  masters,  to  blot 
out  the  intellects  of  half  the  population,  and  to  extinguish 
at  once  and  forever,  both  the  capacity  and  the  hope  of 
freedom. 

In  catholic  Brazil, — in  the  Spanish  islands,  where  one 
might  expect  to  find  tyranny  aggravated  by  ignorance  and 
superstition,  the  slave  is  still  regarded  as  a  man,  and  as  en 
titled  to  something  of  human  sympathies.  He  may  kneel 
at  the  altar  by  his  master's  side ;  and  he  may  hear  the 
catholic  priest  proclaiming  boldly  from  his  pulpit,  the  sacred 
truth  that  all  men  are  equal.  He  may  find  consolation  and 
support  in  the  hope  of  one  day  becoming  a  freeman.  He 
may  purchase  his  liberty  with  money ;  if  barbarously  and 
unreasonably  punished,  he  may  demand  it  as  his  legal  right ; 
he  may  expect  it  from  the  gratitude  or  the  generosity  of  his 
master;  or  from  the  conscience-stricken  dictates  of  his 
priest-attended  deathbed.  When  he  becomes  a  freeman, 
he  has  a  freeman's  rights,  and  enjoys  a  real  and  practical 
equality,  at  the  mere  mention  of  which,  the  prating  and 
prejudiced  Americans  are  filled  with  creeping  horror,  and 
passionate  indignation. 

Slavery,  in  those  countries,  by  the  force  of  causes  now 
in  operation,  is  fast  approaching  to  its  end  ;  and  let  the  Afri 
can  slave-trade  be  once  totally  abolished,  and  before  the 
expiration  of  half  a  century,  there  will  not  a  slave  be  found 
in  either  Spanish  or  Portuguese  America. 

It  is  in  the  United  States  alone,  that  country  so  apt  to 
claim  a  monopoly  of  freedom,  that  the  spirit  of  tyranny  still 


ARCHY   MOORE.  115 

soars  boldly  triumphant,  and  disdains  even  the  most  distant 
thought  of  limitation.  Here  alone,  of  all  the  world  beside, 
oppression  riots  unchecked  by  fear  of  God,  or  sympathy 
for  man. 

To  add  the  last  security  to  despotism,  the  American 
slave-holders,  while  they  fiercely  refuse  to  relinquish  the 
least  tittle  of  their  whip-wielding  authority,  have  deprived 
themselves,  by  special  statute,  of  the  power  of  emancipa 
tion,  and  have  thus  artfully  and  industriously  closed  up  the 
last  loop-hole,  through  which  Hope  might  look  in  upon 
their  victims ! 

And  thou  my  child ! — These  are  the  mercies  to  which 
thy  youth  is  delivered  over !  Perhaps  already  the  spirit  of 
manhood  is  extinguished  within  thee ;  already  perhaps  the 
frost  of  servitude  has  nipped  thy  budding  soul,  and  left  it 
blasted , — worthless. 

No! — oh  no! — It  ought  not,  must  not,  cannot,  shall 
not  be  so !  Child  !  thou  hast  yet  a  father ; — one  who 
has  not  forgotten,  and  who  will  not  forsake  thee.  Thy 
need  is  great — and  great  shall  be  his  efforts ; — that  love  is 
little  worth  which  disappointment  tires,  or  danger  daunts. 

Yes ; — I  have  resolved  it.  I  will  revisit  America,  and 
through  the  length  and  the  breadth  of  the  land,  I  will  search 
out  my  child.  I  will  snatch  him  from  the  oppressor's  grasp, 
or  perish  in  the  attempt.  Should  I  be  recognized  and 
seized  ? — It  is  not  in  vain  that  I  have  read  the  history  of 
the  Romans ;  I  know  a  way  to  disappoint  the  tyrants ; 
the  guilt  be  on  their  heads !  I  cannot  be  a  slave  the  sec 
ond  time. 


FINIS. 


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